The Headset Accessory

When you get up in the morning and jump into your pants and pull on your shirt, don't forget to put your bluetooth headset over your ear. You can wear it all day long without ever taking it off. It seems to be the fashionable thing to do these days, however I have to see it in US weekly before I start wearing my glued together beat up chipped bluetooth ear piece. Maybe I'll invest in a nice red one, which could match the color of my side burns. That would be nice. Perhaps I could even sleep with it so that I don't have to put it on early next morning like I have to do with my contact lenses. Hell I might even get one permanently installed on my ear.

Halloween

Ah, so are you wondering what I was this year. Well, I was Ernie, from Sesame St., and Liz was my faithful rubber ducky. At the Boogle event, I just had to get up on stage and sing about my favorite friend in the whole wide world and how she makes tubbie time the bestest time ever.

Jane Fonda and her little dog too

Jane came to work today to talk about feminism and women's rights. I
was surprised to see her stride in with a mini palm dog of some sort.
The little guy didn't say a word and pretty much stayed whereever she
placed him. This reminded me of Paris Hilton and her K9 companion.

What I am wondering is, does this bode well for the image of feminism.
I always seem to take people with palm dogs a little less seriously.

Off to India

I just wanted to plug my India blog for the next month, as I will be going to India until sometime in September. Check out http://indiabeans.blogspot.com to stay updated.

Angel Island

These are some of my first pictures from my new camera, taken at an offsite to Angel Island. A short description of the people from left to right, back to front: intern in other group, me, 3 people in my group, 2 guys in other group, my manager, girl in red in other group, the 4 interns in my group

.

Sweet picture of the fog rolling over Marin.

The Angel Island dock.

 

Discovering Halo

Since my new roommate is a total gamer and has every video game under the sun, I have been introduced willingly to Halo, and I am letting myself become addicted... at least until I beat it. Video games have become a lot better since my old Nintendo system. I pride myself on investing some time to get up to speed with the latest gaming developments.

My friend Shane made a funny comment the other day. He described us in 20 years, when we are going to be so out of the loop when it comes to technology. We will ask our kids how to work the TV, "Do you push this button?". The upset honory teenager will exclaim, "No Dad! God! You just think it and wave your hand". And we will be left to ponder how difficult technology has become.

Vancouver Wedding Reception BBQ

I went up to Vancouver this weekend for a little wedding reception BBQ with my good friend Daniel. We have known each other for about 26 years now, so that's quite a while.

Vancouver at this time of year was a beautiful place. We had the chance to bicycle around the city for a few hour. From the beach boardwalk, you can see everything there is in Vancouver including the downtown skyline, Victoria Island, Stanley Park, the ski slopes, and the entire bay.

Here's a picture of the two of us after the BBQ, just hanging out again. I should try to dig up a picture of when we were about 5 years old and see how we have changed.




This is a small group I met (me, Daniel, Suzanne -- Daniel's wife, Hayden -- Tina's son, Tina -- who introduced Suzanne and Daniel, Janet -- my counterpart to Suzanne)

Manhattan Wedding

This weekend was another big wedding. It was huge... the biggest and most extravagant wedding I have ever seen. I was dressed down in my nice new suit since everyone was wearing a tux or a suit with a white shirt at least.

But the wedding was great. It was in Manhattan at a nice church uptown. The ceremony was rather traditional. After that, we headed on our party bus to the reception at a huge hotel ballroom in midtown Manhattan. There were three stations of appetizers before the meal and then there was an amazing band which played everything from Oldies to Hip Hop... and they didn't stop for 4 hours.




The bride was Liz's friend Allie, whom she knew from Mills, and the husband was new to both of us. It was strange that when I met Allie, she said, "Erik? Oh, Beans? I have heard so much about you." I guess my name precedes me.


The cake was interesting... a real cheese cake. We didn't get to have any, but I am sure that the couple will save a piece to eat on their one year anniversary.



Allie was a pretty wild girl I see.

 

Portland Wedding

I went to Portland this weekend this last weekend to witness the following lovely couple get married. The guy is Liz's cousin and though I didn't get a good chance to talk to him very much, I was really happy to meet him. The girl is his lovely wife now and it was great to meet her too.


And this is us. We spent the whole weekend up in Portland with Liz's family with non stop fun activites. There was bowling, dinners, karaoke, the wedding of course, lots of dancing, and also touring the rural parts of Portland.




It was a great weekend.

Moving sucks still...

Well, as of my last post, I was still living at my old place, but now I am completely moved out and not completely moved into the new place. I worked pretty hard to organize everything but there are still a few more things to put away and a few more things to throw away. And I have been dying to try out the new jacuzzi. I think that will be my reward for finishing with all this crap that I have to do.

Moving sucks

It's a real pain in the butt to move, especially, when you are moving from a 2000 sq ft house into a tiny 1000 sq ft condo. It's amazing how much stuff I have acquired since I have been up here, but I guess that it isn't too bad since I can move it all by myself without any help.

Disneyland

This weekend was a fun filled weekend at the happiest place on Earth. And our group, at least all but one of us, found happiness in the Astro Blasters ride. This is the laser gun shooting ride at Disneyland and we all quickly became obsessed. It must have been the competition factor that the other rides don't have. Or perhaps it was the battle against the evil Zerg that we all got caught up in. The whole weekend was lots of fun, from the long drive up and down the 5 to the thrilling Indiana Jones Adventure.

London Trip

Well, I am back from my London, Amsterdam, Brussels trip now. You can see a detailed blog at http://londonbeans.blogspot.com

Off to London

Well, I am really excited because I am going off to London for a week long recruiting trip. I hope that we get some good candidates, and better yet, I hope that I have a great time. I'll have to make a London blog somewhere on the web.

Pick Pickler

My girlfriend teases me about Kelly Pickler almost everytime that we watch American Idol. Hey, she's blonde, has a cute accent, and aside from being ditsy, is quite attractive. At least I have Ace to use as ammunition against my girlfriend.

Solo Flight

I had my first solo flight today. It was a lot of fun. I went to Half Moon Bay and did a couple take offs and landings. It is not as nerve racking as I thought that it would be.

Carmel

I just got back from Carmel for a lovely weekend away from home. Point Lobos was quite an awesome spectacle.

Erik at sunset 

Lone Cypress 

Liz at sunset 

Carmel Waves 

Liz and Erik 

Carmel Sea 

Chipmunkitis 

Wisdom teeth

I am recovering from having all four of my wisdom teeth pulled out. So, right now I am a half chipmunk because only one side of my face is swollen. The other side seems to be doing all right. It's the weirdest thing to be knocked completely out and wake up seemingly seconds later to be in an unhealthy condition and you have to recover from it for a week. A worse story I heard was that my mom had all four of her wisdom teeth taken out without any anesthesia. I guess that they just strapped her down and someone held her hand. I think that I would pass out from the shock if I were in a situation like that.