Here is picture of the Yorba Linda Fire from our house - we are about 15 miles south of the fire zone.
Today, I went with Nikhil to the Mt. Sac Race. Amazingly, they still held the race near Diamond Bar and the air quality was still good this morning. On the way home, however, the 57 freeway was closed and we had to make our way south on city streets. It took about an hour to go 10 miles!
We got back on the freeway heading south at the Lambert on ramp. Here we are escaping the smoke!
Posted in Life | Tagged Fire, yorba linda fire | No Comments »
Vikram played in his last regular season soccer game on Saturday. His team’s name is the Big Macs.
Here are some pics from the game.
Here is a picture of Vikram heading the ball.
Here he is team in a huddle. If you look in the background, you can see the smoke clouds from the Yorba Linda file about 15 miles away. The air quality in our neighborhood was surprisingly good.
Here is Vikram - his nickname is “freight train” and you can guess why.
Posted in Soccer | Tagged ayso, Soccer, Sports | No Comments »
Nikhil ran in the Tustin Dino Dash 5K this morning. This was his second time and he improved from his previous time by a whopping six minutes and nine seconds. Last year he got 26:39 and this year, his time was 20:30! The course was a full 5K which means he averaged about a 6:35 mile pace. Here is a link to the official results.
Here are a couple of pictures from the race.
Nikhil placed 116th overall and 2nd place among 11 year olds. There were about 2300 people running in the race. What an improvement!
Posted in Cross Country | Tagged Cross Country, Dino Dash, Running | No Comments »
We had a Halloween block party at our house yesterday.
All of the kids dressed up as did many of the parents.
Here is Annika as Princess Rosalina from Super Mario Brothers Galaxy. Don’t ask why she picked that, but she was very specific about what she wanted to be this year! Anjali sticthed her costume for her because it was so unique. Next to her is her friend Lizzy.
Posted in Entertainment | Tagged Halloween, party | No Comments »
Posted in Entertainment | Tagged Diwali, Entertainment, Fireworks | No Comments »
Annika had Red Day in school today. Not sure what the significance of it was but I think it had to do with being “drug free”.
I looked on line and saw a few links to the Heart Association promoting women’s heart disease prevention programs. I also say several links to Red Ribbon Week which promotes “drug free” in schools. I think it was the latter this week in our school.
Posted in School | Tagged Red Day, School | No Comments »
Nikhil has been running Cross Country again this season. Yesterday he ran at the Mt. Sac Regionals in the 6th Grade Middle School Regionals. He improved on his time from last year by almost 2 minutes to 9:56 for this 1.2 mile course. He placed 44th and needed another 40 seconds to medal in the race. There were 213 kids in the race and the starting line was a madhouse!
Here are some pictures from the race.
Here he is from a couple of other races this season. This first one is from Pierce College out in the Valley.
Before every race starts, there is a course walk. Mom and Dad were visiting that weekend and they walked the course. Here is mom on the walk - Dad took the shortcut and avoided the hill!
This is from a meet out in Corona with the Corona Panthers.
There are just a few more meets this season.
Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »
I just got back from our “Guys” trip to Moab for 3 days of hard core riding. Here are some pictures from the trip.
On Day 1 we went to Amasa Back. This was a relatively easy ride (compared to the next two days)!
On the second day of riding, we went to the world famous Slickrock. I am definitely in better shape than the last two times. Still hard, but very doable this year.
It started out in the morning with a bit of rain, but amazingly, the Slickrock was still quite grippy. The only challenge was the wet sand which caused more than a few crashes!
The last and final day was our ride from Hazard county back to the valley.
We took a shuttle from downtown Moab to about 9500 ft - about 40 miles of driving. Last year when we went, it was snowing and we had to drop back down a couple of thousand feet to where it was just raining.
This year, it was overcast at the top but quite ridable.
Here we all are at the top - before the rains started. The shuttle carried fifteen of us with our bikes.
As we get closer to the bottom, it is a full on rain! Twenty two miles of riding and 6,000 feet of descent!
Three days later, and I am still recovering - bruises and cuts on my arms, a bloody lip, and banged up knees. Until next year!!
Posted in Mountain Bike | Tagged Amasa, Hazard, Moab, Mountain Biking, Porcupine Rim | No Comments »
We went to Disneyland on Saturday. We got there when the park opened and literally walked onto most of the rides. We completed all the major roller coasters by lunch time (Space Mountain, Matterhorn, Indiana Jones, Thunder Mountain.
In the afternoon, we went to California Adventure. This was our first time there. The rides were much more exciting.
Here are the kids at the Hollywood Hotel ride. This is the same ride they have at Disney World in Orlando. Way cool! We rode it twice.
We also did the California Screamin ride twice.
By about 5 o’clock, we were all pooped and hungry! Nikhil had a race out in Corona early the next morning so we decided to head back home and get some rest.
One last pose in front of the faux skyline. Note the realistic clouds and shadows.
Posted in Entertainment | Tagged California Adventure, Disneyland, Entertainment | No Comments »
The boys attended their first Cotillion today. They got to wear a suit and tie and learn some basic etiquette. Anjali spent all day Sunday going from store to store to try to find some clothes that would fit these skinny dudes!
This is a six week program where they will learn every thing from table manners and speaking skills to basic dancing. They will thank us when they are all grown up.
Posted in Kids | Tagged Cotillion, dance, Kids | 2 Comments »
Our 5 year old Dell computer died last week and took along all of the pictures on my hard drive. I am planning on sending it in to a data recovery service that will charge $600 to try to see if they can recover any of the pictures.
Anyway, after being all pissed off at Dell, I went to the Apple store and picked up a new 24″ iMac to see what all the fuss was about. The hardest part was figuring out where the on/off switch was!
I was able to very easily upload new pictures from our camera - just plug it in. No Canon or other software to install. The uploads even seem faster.
Picasa, my old editing tool on the PC doesn’t work on the Mac, so I am now learning to use iPhoto.
I haven’t quite figured out how to save the image in a lower resolution so the file uploads to WordPress are quicker, but the cutover was pretty painless.
And look, no more wires cluttering up my desktop. I have a basketful of cables going in the trash!
Posted in Commentary, Entertainment | Tagged Apple, Computer, iPhoto, Wordpress | 3 Comments »
Nikhil ran his first 5K of the season on Sunday in the Guy Poncy 5K at the Block in Orange. We haven’t done any running during summer break yet he still ran a 26:07.
Posted in Cross Country | Tagged Cross Country, Running, Sports | No Comments »
Dear John,
Are you kidding me? You picked a beauty queen with a couple of years of experience leading the fourth smallest state in the country. Before that, she was mayor of a podunk little town in nowhere Alaska.
This is blatant pandering for the female vote. There were certainly more qualified women you could have picked but didn’t (Condi anyone?). This is just wrong on so many fronts!
You just helped this Republican make up his mind!
OUTRAGEOUS!!!!
Posted in Commentary | Tagged Commentary, John McCain, politics, Sarah Palin | 2 Comments »
This week, I took the boys with their Boy Scout troop up to Yosemite for 5 days. On one of the days, we hiked up to Half Dome. This was a difficult 18 mile round trip from our campsite at Upper Pines. It took us about twelve and a half hours to complete the hike.
We started promptly at 5:30 in the morning while it was still dark.
About an hour into the hike, the kids had a dry cereal breakfast.
Here they are on another break.
At about the 6 hour mark, we near the staircase and cables part of Half Dome.
Here is a picture up the staircase. It is some basic rock scrambling. At the top of this 1/2 mile section is the cable portion. Only four of the boys remained for this last section.
Here we are right before the cables. You can see the cable ascent to the top of Half Dome in the picture below. The cable portion is 400 feet and is rated as a Class 3 climb.
I did not get a picture of it, but to keep the kids safe, we had them all wear a harness and clip themselves to the cables. In case they slipped, the harness would keep them safe.
There were some people that should not have been up there. We saw people in flip flops, people with one or two bottles of water and other accidents just waiting to happen. One of the boys said, “if you don’t know what you are doing, you will die”. We saw so many people that fit this category! In fact, the Park Service reports that there were three fatal falls last year alone.
Finally, we made it to the top! The peak is at 8842 feet of elevation and rises about 4700 feet off the valley floor.
The descent down the cables was a bit easier but still quite challenging.
After the cables, we started back down the mountain. Even though it was all down hill, it was still strenuous with difficult terrain to navigate.
One last shot of the numerous waterfalls on the way back.
Vikram said he “found his guts” on this trip. I would also add that it totally impressed me that these 11-14 year olds were able to accomplish such a feat at such a young age. I am proud of them all.
Posted in Boy Scouts | Tagged Boy Scouts, Half Dome, hiking, Kids, Vacation, Yosemite | 1 Comment »
On Sunday we went for a long hike into Blackstar Canyon. We started at the trail head and after a short walk through the shady canyon we started climbing up some switchbacks. After a few miles we hit a level plateau before climbing for a few more miles.
Here are some pictures from the hike. Note the bullet holes in the sign!
Here are the boys in front of a big rock.
At about 7.5 miles into the hike, we neared the giant Doppler Radar also known as the “Death Star”.
A little bit further up the trail there were some more strange rock formations that looked like they had been pulled up from the bottom of the ocean to about the 4500ft level we were at.
From here it was a long way back but at least it was all down hill! Fifteen miles in total. I think we are ready for Half Dome.
Posted in Boy Scouts | Tagged Blackstar Canyon, Hike | No Comments »
The boys and I are going to Yosemite in a couple of weeks. To prepare, we went on a hike last weekend up to the top of Mt. Baldy. Doug E and his son Adam joined us as our official tour guide. Mt. Baldy is one of the tallest peaks in So Cal at about 10,100 feet. We started at about 6200 feet and climbed up and back down in about 7 hours.
Here are some pictures of us along the way.
Here we are about half way up. There is a cabin with a nice stream running by it.
Here we are near the top. Note the change in the terrain as we are well above the tree line. Still another 1000 feet of climbing left.
Here we are at the top of the mountain!
The walk back down went a lot quicker. A couple of more long hikes and we’ll be ready for Half Dome!
Posted in Boy Scouts | Tagged Boy Scouts, hiking, Mt. Baldy | No Comments »
I was in Geneva last week and it was in full throttle tourist mode. All of the lakefront hotels were booked solid by the Saudi princes and their entourages.
Here is a picture in front of the Kempinski Hotel with “his and hers” Rolls Royce. Behind the Rolls is a Bentley convertible. Note that all of the cars still have their Saudi plates on them. These are not mere rentals, but rather, the cars are shipped in on the Saudis private jet(s). Geneva must have some sort special arrangements for them.
Here is another picture in front of the Woodrow Wilson Hotel. This one is of a Ferrari and a Lamborghini.
Our $5 per gallon gasoline is fueling one of the biggest transfers of wealth in the history of the world. This rising bill for imported petroleum lowers our already anemic savings rates, adds to inflation, worsens the trade deficit, and undermines the dollar.
Wake up George Bush…. it is time to have a comprehensive energy policy!
Posted in Commentary | Tagged Autos, Cars, Ferrari, Gasoline, Lamborghini, Oil, Petrodollars, politics, Rolls Royce, Saudi | 1 Comment »
On Thursday night, Anjali and I went to a concert at the Pacific Amphitheater. The opening band was the Psychedelic Furs. I remember listening to this group back in the early 80’s. Their claim top fame was “Pretty in Pink” which they saved until the very end. A couple of other songs they played that made the charts included “Ghost in You” and “Love My Way”. Their performance was mediocre at best. The lead singer must be in his late 50’s now and his voice was not quite what it used to be! He also doesn’t get around quite the way Mick Jagger does! Lucky for us, it was sunny, warm and quite relaxing as we watched some of the characters dancing all around us!
The headliner was a group called Yaz (or Yazoo at one point). Their lead singer is Allison Moyet and she is supported by her synthesizer player Vince Clarke (formerly of Depeche Mode and afterward at Erasure).
Here are Anjali and I enjoying the concert.
By the time Yaz started, the concert had filled up. This was their final stop of the tour, and probably the final stop of her career. Allison Moyet still sounded awesome. Unfortunately, she has ballooned up over the 200 pound mark and doesn’t look like her former self! At one point she remarked that her rubber soled shoes don’t let her move around the carpet as well as she would like.
Anyway… enough commentary. Her singing redeemed the night as she banged her way thru all of her classic hits. These included “Nobody’s Diary”, “Good Times”, “Sweet Thing” and “Don’t Go” . She came back for a two song encore which included “Only You”.
Here is a clip from “Don’t Go”. By the way, his entire synthesizer mix was on his Apple laptop!
We had a great time at the concert.
Posted in Entertainment | Tagged concert, Entertainment, Moyet, music, Psychedelic Furs, Yaz, Yazoo | No Comments »
Nikhil got his Brown Belt in Karate this week. Here are some pictures from his test.
Here he is breaking a board.
And finally, here he is receiving his Brown Belt.
Posted in Karate | Tagged brown belt, Karate, Kids, Sports | No Comments »
Barrack is getting this Republican’s vote!
October 18, 2008 by Shree Khare
When McCain picked the Idiot Palin, he lost my vote!
Even I have more international experience than her - I have actually visited (and/or worked) in over a dozen different countries on four different continents. Palin didn’t even have her US passport until 2006! She has only visited four countries and one of those was a refueling stop!
Check this video out. It makes a pretty convincing argument.
Posted in Commentary | Tagged Election, Obama, Palin, politics | 1 Comment »