Where am I?

So I woke up this morning without an office to go to or work obligations for the first time in a while. I made the most of things by running a few errands, going to the gym and then stopping by here:



Any guesses as to where I am?

Aloha, A hui ho AccessClosure

Picnic at Encinal Park on my last day as an AccessClosure employee. Thanks to everyone for making the last three years at the company such a great experience!

Berkeley & 2011 US Moto GP

So this past weekend, Grant decided to come up to the Bay Area for another visit.

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The tour started with a trip to Zachary's Pizza in Berkeley. We ordered a Chicken Special deep dish pizza (with chicken, basil, mushrooms) that we split between the two of us. Three slices each led to an extreme feeling of full-ness.

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After the filling lunch, we hit up the UC Berkeley Campus for an informal tour since Grant had not been back since graduation. We saw many of the main sights, including the (under construction) Memorial stadium and the (pictured) Campanile. Grant also did a bit of shopping to pick up some goods from the campus store in order to show off his school pride.

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On sunday, we headed to Monterey, CA for a trip to the Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca to watch the 2011 US MotoGP race.

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The famous "Corkscrew" (aka Turn 8). Pretty impressive to see in person I must say. One day, I hope to ride a car (or motorcycle) 'round here.

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After watching a really cool electric motorcycle race, where the bikes flew swiftly and silently around the track, we (Grant, Brian and I) checked out some of the vendor tents setup near the track. I love carbon fiber. But, in this case, I'm not allowed to touch it.

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They briefly opened up sections of the track for spectators to walk across. Here, we took a stroll across the straightaway leading into Turn 4. Our seats for the race were actually located in the grandstands you see in the background.

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And they're off! The riders head into Turn 4 as quickly as they can during the first lap of the MotoGP race. We brought earplugs to the track because those MotoGP motorcycle engines produce an obscenely loud sound. Sweet, but eardrum shattering.

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By the later stages of the race, it became a two-rider battle between Yamaha's Jorge Lorenzo (pictured in the lead here) and Honda's Casey Stoner. In the last few laps, Stoner's superior speed finally allowed him to overtake Lorenzo and win the 2011 US MotoGP race. Impressive victory for Stoner as Lorenzo had led the majority of the laps after starting on pole.

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In case you want to see a little piece of the action, here's a brief video of the MotoGP bikes flying out of Turn 4 and disappearing around Turn 5. These bikes are technological marvels and the riders are superhuman. Simply amazing stuff. Click the image above and it should bring up the video in a new window.

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Thanks for dropping by for the weekend Grant. We may just have to make this MotoCP race an annual event...

Quakes Game!

After work today, a few of us got tickets to the San Jose Earthquakes game at Santa Clara University. On a warm summer's evening, we had the pleasure of watching the Quakes (black) take on the Vancouver Whitecaps (white) in an entertaining match that saw two goals scored each team. It went back and forth for a while and although the quality could not compare to the sustained intensity of a upper tier international match or European club competition, it did provide the odd thrill here and there. Thanks to Bill for giving us a great deal on the tickets. It would certainly be worth checking out again in the future sometime!

Catching up with July

I recall saying in the previous post that I would be trying to post a bit more. Having let the first half of July go by without a peep, I'd like to try to make amends by sharing a few pics from my miscellaneous adventures over the past few weeks. Here goes.

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Backtracking just a little into June, I spent an afternoon with Daniel celebrating his birthday with friends, food and, of course, frisbees. As you may be able to see in the photo, we fired up the grill and charred some meat. Yum.

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The view from Twin Peaks, down at the lovely city of San Francisco on a beautiful summer day. Nick, Diana & I stopped by for the view after seeing the Jazz Mafia play a free concert at Stern Grove.

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We also ate some dinner at Izakaya Sozai on Irving St (in SF). A couple of the highlights of our "Japanese tapas" included the ahi tartare with lotus root chips shown above.

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And this hamachi carpaccio dish. So, so tasty and my hands down favourite. I'd be remiss if I did not also mention the very good ramen they serve here (which I ate in haste without snapping a photo of).

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Blurry cellphone picture of Pink Martini with the San Francisco Symphony in Cupertino. Disappointingly, they performed without China Forbes (the lead singer). Guest vocalists Lucy Woodward & Ari Shapiro (yeah, the NPR guy) both filled in admirably and made for a good show. Despite having seen them perform before, Mari & I enjoyed seeing/hearing the self-proclaimed "little orchestra" weave their musical magic yet again.

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I also had the privilege of helping to celebrate Devin's 2nd Birthday with family, friends and cake. Oh, plus 90˚F heat, a swimming pool and, of course, another BBQ.

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For dinner last weekend, I made a small batch of chicken enchiladas that turned out quite well. I made the sauce mostly from scratch though I did utilize canned tomatoes. I intend to increase my adventurousness in the future by trying to work with fresh tomatoes and seeing if I can create as tasty a dish.

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Another weekend, another lovely day in San Francisco. Can you spot the kite stuck in the tree?

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This time Diana, myself and Nick ventured to Golden Gate park for another SF Symphony concert (this one being their annual free concert in the park).

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Naturally, we arrived a bit tardy. I got there first on motorcycle while Nick & Diana caught the tail end of a different (and much smaller scale) concert that they accidentally stumbled upon in another area of the large park. They eventually made it during the intermission and caught the last couple of songs. Luckily, we managed to get a great view and they played a lovely concert culminating in a nice rendition of Beethoven's 5th.

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Nick took a brief nap during the show and we decided to have some fun using a pair of dried blueberries, a roasted almond and a digital camera strap. Voila!

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And there we have it. It has been an eventful past few weeks with me giving notice at work and I've got a little less than two weeks left at AccessClosure. Onward to a new challenge at Abbott Structural Heart in August. Certainly a bittersweet departure in that I'm excited for a new challenge but I'll surely miss all the great people I currently work with. But, we all need to make a few changes every so often and now seems like as good a time as any to take a step into the unknown. Wish me luck!