Farewell Chris, Victoria and of course Sascha
So a good friend of mine was laid off recently and landed a nice job over on the east coast so we spent a few days hanging out with them all before they headed off on their new adventure. Karina loves dogs (and is constantly hassling us to get one!) so she was in her element with their dog Sascha. Look at the size of him!!!!! We love this picture :) Kyle likes the idea of Sascha but in practice he's only brave till the dog looks at him, then he screams and runs away. Very funny... big softie!
Anwyay - we all wish Chris and Victoria the very best of luck on the east coast, we know it will be the best decision they made. Take care guys!
New job
Oh yeah, one small piece of news I forgot to mention on the blog - I changed job 4 weeks ago. I finally got the hell out of the games industry after almost 13 years of torture, mental abuse, overtime, crappy pay and major tedium. See how much I loved it? :) Anyway - the grass really IS greener and I am not in the movie VFX industry, having finally made the jump over.
In the end ot wasnt so difficult, although undoubtedly my contacts (all of whome I met through day care, strangely enough!) and some personal projects I decided to spend some time doing helped me get my foot in the door. Hopefully my work and experience did the rest. So now I am working at, and I still can't quite believe it, Industrial Light and Magic (ILM). Yep - George Lucas' VFX house that worked on Transformers, Iron Man and of course all the Star Wars movies. I am there as an artst - specifically a modeller, and so far it absolutely rocks! Wish us luck, because its a very big step.
Marin County Fair
A lot seemed to happen in July, most of which I either missed out on due to work, or was too tired to fully enjoy (Ahhh, poor Shauny!). The Marin County Fair being one of them, which we'd planned on going to most of the year then at the last minute, change of plans due to my work (more on that later) and so the kdis and Nat went along with their friends and still managed to have a ncie day out, and as you can see it was gorgeous weather again. Not too sure about those scary, slightly surreal giant bear rides though... after a few beers, that could be trippy!
Karina, Dina and Naiomi
4th July Lucas Picnic
Now in its 30th year!!! We discussed the picnic / BBQ last year and we had the same thing this year. Unfortunatelty the weather was very poor for the first half of the day - heavily fogged and overcast, chilly and even a few drops of rain - but it cleared up after mid day and was once again really hot. The real shame this year was that a lot of my friends had left Lucas recently, mostly in the lay offs. And those that were still there, the majority of them had other plans that weekend as 4th July fell on a Friday. So we went along anyway and still had a good time seeing the stables and the ranch, playing in the pool, eating free ice creme and BBQ goodies, and a few beers along the way too! Thanks again George, it was definately fun!
4th July daycare parade
The kids had a little 4th of July parade / celebration at the daycare and Karinas class all made red, white and blue tie-dye shirts and american-flag themed crafts, then sang songs and celebrated Americas day of independence. Cute! :-)
Sonoma Wineries trip
So on the last day they were here I decided it may be nice to take a trip not to Napa (the more famous and in my opinion ier rated winery area in Northern California) but to Sonoma. Basically the same deal - scenic beauty and lots of booze - but closer to us, less expensive and less "up itself".
A great decision too, what a lovely place. We only visited two wineries, one really huge estate and one small family business. We tasted wines in the first place (5 tastes each for $10 - but you don't pay if you buy a bottle) and had a look around their awesome store which sells all manner of wine and fine food, most if which is locally grown.
We had a fantastic couple of hours and the kids loved it there. And just look at the view! We bought some nice wine to enjoy that evenings and had a very pleasant end to their trip.
Santa Cruz
At last, Santa Cruz. What an amazing place! Its the equivalent of a classy Blackpool :) A great boardwalk with fun fair, indoor amusement center, an awesome beach with lots of scantily clad ladies (well, college girls!) playing volleyball, bars, restaurant. Ah, it was absolute torture!!!!! :) Best of all (well, aside from the college girls, obviously!) was the arcade, stuffed with classic video games.
I sent the family on their way for a look around and took time out for some frantic Robotron action. Awesome stuff! We took a dip in the sea with the kids (via the volleyball area, naturally) and an ice cream - again, really weird how we had to bypass that damned volleyball court. Strange that, but who was I to argue?
And that was that. We stopped to watch the hundreds of seals that were camped out around the pier making the most god-awful racket, took one last wander past the bouncy athletic ladies, and headed home. All in all a great day out. Despite the torture.
Continuing down the pacific coast
Sorry for the delay in updates, things are more crazy insane here than usual. Things never seem to get any easier. SIGH! Oh well... heres the rest of the drive we did when my Dad was here...
So, further down the Pacific Coast and some really gorgeous scenery. Beaches and surf coves everywhere. I managed to drop the video camera while taking these and partially break it, as well as actually leaving the still camera on the beach and needing to return for it. The things we go through in the name of "entertainment"!
This last picture is from Pigeon Point Lighthouse, an old lighthouse that seemed to be working but going through major repair or renevation. It seemed to be a natural beauty spot with a hostel there as well as being protected in some way - we didn't stay liong enough to find out the details but I geuss there are a lot of protected plants and wildlife in the area. Anyway you can see whales there, so the signs said. We spotted some seals and their babies on the rocks but it was SO cold, almost gale force winds and absolutely chilling to the bone. Yes, Karina really is shivering in that pic, which is weird as the rest of the trip it was unbearably hot, close to 100 degrees!
