i wish they all could be california girls...

saturday, and even more surprises!

today we headed out of the house around noon-ish. we decided that since the weather was absolutely beautiful, and our visitors just escaped from chicago and philadelphia weather we should make it to the beach. we headed to laguna beach, one of the closer beaches, and also a really nice beach to wander around.

lunch was had at the laguna beach hotel. they have an outside seating area where you can dine viewing the ocean and enjoying the sun, so we got ourselves a nice table and perused the menu.

all morning long, craig had been getting phone calls from some mystery person, or people and it was at lunch that the surprise unfolded. as we were sitting on the patio out walked jenny and sam - two of my friends from northern california! after a hug, and an introduction to callum, tara*, and alicia, sam stated "we just decided it was a nice day to see the beach."

after lunch we wandered around. the ladies and i walked around on the beach some while craig and callum hung out on the boardwalk. there were 5 of us out on the beach, and 5 separate cameras shooting every which-way. i'm sure we were quite the sight.

after our lunch and our impromptu photo shoot, craig, callum, tara*, alicia, and i headed back to our place - while jen and sam wandered laguna a bit more. i suspected i would be seeing them later this evening - however no one gave anything away. sam kept with the 'we just wanted to go to the beach today' story, and jenny just avoided all mention of any plans she knew about. (i thought that perhaps they would be easier to break since tara* and alicia hadn't given me any hint as to any plans - i was wrong.)

mom and dad finally came by around 4:30, this time for real. we're now getting caught up with eachother, and the grandparents are getting some good callum time.

here's some photos from this afternoon.

Friends at Laguna Beach

who has the greatest husband ever?...

I DO!

as craig previously mentioned, he, my parents, and friends were all quite super spy about my birthday plans... and i had absolutely no clue. in hindsight i can now string together many of the clues... the fact that my mom didn't call the night before they were 'coming to visit', the fact that she was never near the phone, the reason tara* and alicia weren't online thursday afternoon at all (an especially rare task for super-geek alicia).

the surprises did not stop on thursday however, craig had more in store.

after a lovely day hanging out at the house, playing with callum, and generally gossiping with the lovely ladies - we made our way over to the shops across the road and had lunch. we decided on wahoo's fish taco - as it has become somewhat of a tradition for alicia and i to dine there whenever she is in town. callum was a perfect gentleman, and absolutely LOVED all the attention from tara* and alicia.

once craig came home we prepared ourselves to go out to dinner. i wasn't at all sure where we were going, but i was told jeans and t-shirts would be appropriate. we hopped onto the freeway to go south, and i figured it out rather quickly. we were headed to pizza port in san clemente! pizza port is one of my favorite restaurants as it has two of my great loves - good pizza, and good beer!

as we were hanging out at the table we were joined by two friends, Gorkey and Mike. Mike and Tara* ended up talking sports for a while, and Gorkey was quite taken with Callum. they both smiled and laughed at, and with, one another. callum and gorkey have both found a new best friend.

at around 10 pm we headed home for a sleep (and a beer or two more). it was another good day. i am told that tomorrow will be full of even MORE surprises!

The Great Birthday Surprise Begins To Unfold

So as many of you know, I have been working on a plan to celebrate Jen's 30th Birthday (officially on the 17th if you are interested).

Well the first part of that plan unfolded this evening. It involved having 2 of Jen's good friends from Philadelphia (Tara) and Chicago (Alicia) fly in to spend the weekend with us.

So it was quite a good plan originally. The two girls did me a favor and coordinated their flights to get in to LAX at the same time so I did not have to do the drive twice. But of course, man plans and god laughs. Tara's flight ended up being 2 and a half hours late arriving which threw a small spanner in the works.

I had worked it out with Jen's parents (Ted & Les) to create a story that they were coming down to stay for the weekend and arriving today - this way Jen would at least be expecting company and also would not find it strange when I started tidying up the house! :)

So Ted & Les (well mostly Ted, as Les cannot keep a secret so she decided to keep quiet) were real troopers today and played along well, even with the slight change in plans because of the delayed flight. So they were calling Jen during the day giving her updates on their progress driving down from Sacramento - all lies of course. Then when Tara's plane was late Ted invented this story about bad traffic on the freeway and how they were stopping for food and waiting it out etc. etc.

Meanwhile, I had picked up Alicia and we were killing time sitting in the bar drinking at the Sheraton by LAX. My cell phone was running hot between updates from Ted and then updates from Jen about what her Dad had told her - I got to hear both sides of the saga.

Finally, Tara's plane touched down and we were able to pick her up.

When we finally got back to our place, I had Tara and Alicia wait in the garage while I went in and got Jen to put the kid down (in case she dropped him in her excitement) and then called the girls in. Here is some terribly dark and blurry video (my apologies) of that moment.



More surprises to come during the weekend ...

A Day In LA

I spent today in downtown LA at a 1 day conference for one of the software vendors we use at work. It was held at The Standard hotel, which I can best describe as a high-end boutique hotel with just the right amount of pretentiousness so as to not allow you to forget you are in LA.

Here's a little bit of free conference coffee humor from The Standard:


At the end of the conference the vendor hosted a happy hour in the rooftop bar, which was a very pleasant setting indeed. Of course, 80 folks in business casual didn't really make the trust-fund babies lazing by the pool very happy.







Finally, the vendor took us to the Lakers game and set us up in a VIP suite for the evening. Here's the view from the suite (if its a little blury, you can blame it on the free beer):


So all in all, not a bad day to spend at "work".

Lunch w/ Jen & Jerry

Jen had lunch today with her friends Jen and Jerry from her Unisys days.

This is a nice shot with Jen ... and yes that is her birth control that she is holding up to once and for all dismiss the rumors that it is her husband Tom's "weak sauce" that is behind their lack of children. :)



And this is Uncle Jerry.

Callum and the Seahorse

Callum sleeps with this toy each night. You press its belly and it lights up and plays about 5 minutes of lullaby music. If we let him go too long over night between feedings, he will mistake the big yellow belly for his usual food source and begin to molest and violate the poor seahorse.

New Outfit

So when my Mum was here she bought Callum an outfit that was too large for him. Well he is now already big enough to wear it.

Now I am personally on the fence about how "manly" the outfit is ... you be the judge.



Well, whatever it looks like, it is obviously comfortable. Not sure you could fall asleep any harder than the kid did in this photo.