Monday, August 04, 2008

Reflecting Off The Church Pews, Givin' You The Good News

Monday. Done. Started earlier than I normally like to on Mondays but its going to be starting even earlier as I have a 6am start. Zoinks. That means up at 4:30am and in the car by 5am to get down to Mountain View in time.
It was a pretty packed weekend. Friday was the company picnic and Kia came down. It was pretty fun, pretty similar to last year really except quite a few more people. I caught one or two people breaking the "bring your spouse and your kids" rule - yeah nbui I saw you running around with that troop of neighbor kids - busted. Anyway, it was pretty fun even if the lines for everything were way too long.
Saturday Kia and I spent the day with Allan in SF touring around. Allan spent a chunk of the morning doing some shopping at Union Square and I went and met him as he was winding down the shopping and Kia and I effectively pressured him into enjoying the weather at the beach. We started at Chrissy Field but despite being absolutely beautiful out it was far too windy to sit there so we followed the coast around to Baker Beach which was more crowded but also much less windy and almost equally as beautiful. So we sat there for a while mostly telling Kia stories about all of the stupid things that I did while I was in Beijing - it took a while, I did a lot of stupid things. Then we went to go see the Batman movie. Yeah, I saw it before, but I was glad to see it again, it was pretty bad ass even the second time around. Kia seemed to enjoy it and Allan surprised everyone by saying that it was his first Batman movie. First Batman movie?! That's downright un-American.
Sunday Kia and I got up a little late, ate, and hopped in the car around 2pm headed for Antioch to visit with some of Kia's long lost relatives (and some who weren't lost at all). Her paternal grandfather, aunt, two great-aunts (I think) and second-cousin all drove out from Texas to come to Kia's great-uncle's 75th birthday party. There were a number of other second/aunt/cousin/uncle/nephew/great/in-law types at the event and I must say, they were pretty damned entertaining. I already knew that the Texas branch of Kia's dad's family was pretty much an absolute riot but now I know that the California bunch are right up there. I got grilled about El Goog, pressured into trying to help with the A/V problems they were having with the slideshow. I failed miserably but I made an honest go at it. It was fun. Actually this is the second time I have gone to visit long lost relatives in California in the last few years. The other time was my mom's relatives (aunts and great aunts etc.) in Sacramento - no, not Roseville Koko. Funniest quote of the evening: "You're uglier than I was at 75" - Kia's grandfather recording a video message to his little brother whose birthday it was. That guy was a riot.
It was a hell of a weekend but I am pretty wiped at this point.
Oh, and last week I broke some glass at work and somebody said:
"Broken glass everywhere"
And subsequently attributed that line to MA$E. Go to school youngsters.
Grind hard.

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