December Stuff

I wanted to recap some random stuff we have been up to this month before we head to Kansas in a few days and I likely wont be blogging anytime soon.

The Christmas decorations went up and Lupin found his favorite spot underneath the Christmas tree.
We attended our 5th annual Chemwipes. This event is put on each year by the first year Chemistry Graduate Students. It is a series of live and taped skits where professors, graduate students, and pretty much anything else is made fun of. They advertised it as a 3D event in the beginning but it wasn't really in 3D. We aren't really sure why they bothered.

It wasn't the best Chemwipes ever but there were a few funny parts. Kevin's first year was amazing. I got to be in several of the skits and there were many more live skits than we've seen in the last couple of years. It was still fun hanging out and reminiscing about how awesome our year was.
We went out with a few friends still in town last weekend and had a good time at the 'Dutch Goose'.
We had to take our car into the shop on Saturday for an oil change and a minor repair. After dropping the car off we went walking around downtown Mountain View to do some shopping. On the way back to our apartment we found a little of the fall we've been missing out here and Kevin decided to play in the leaves.

I think this is hilarious.
A little later we found a little more fall and this time Kevin went for the Senior picture pose.
Brian and Moria had an early flight on Sunday morning so they came over for dinner and stayed the night so we could take them to the airport. We bought Hailie and Seth a video game "Just Dance for Kids" for the Wii they are getting for Christmas. The four of us thought we would try it out and it was a blast. It is pretty hilarious watching people play and it is really fun to play too.
I think both Hailie and Seth will like it and I can't wait to play it with them.

This week we have been finishing up our Christmas shopping and have been trying to get everything ready for our trip. Our friend Minsub agreed to watch Lupin for us while we are gone so we don't have to board him at the vet. Therefore we've been stocking up on his dental treats (which he goes crazy for) so that Minsub can bribe him if he runs outside or acts up in any way.

We are taking a red eye on Christmas Eve so we will be home on Christmas Day. Both of us are looking forward to being home this Holiday season with our families and we are so grateful it worked out for me to get the next week off of work. We plan on surprising Hailie and Seth when we head over to my parents house on Christmas evening so don't spill the beans if you see the chicklets before we do!

We wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!!!

Ice Skating in S.F.

Kevin and I headed up to San Francisco last week to check out the ice rink at Embarcadero Center. Getting up there was somewhat of a nightmare with all of the traffic, but once we managed to get there and get parked we were able to relax and have a wonderful evening. We grabbed some Mexican food before heading over to the ice rink. There was a great view of the Market Street Ferry Building and the weather was just about perfect. We managed to avoid the heavy rains that the weekend brought and it only sprinkled on us a little bit.


All of the buildings in the center were lit up giving the whole area a festive feel.

Another view of the Ferry Building.The ice rink was playing Holiday music most of the time and with the colder weather it actually felt more like winter. We had such a blast and it was a wonderful date night.

Neither of us are amazing skaters, but we seemed to being doing alright (especially compared to some people). Kevin only fell down when he attempted circle turns. That may have been a little advanced for him. We took a couple of videos that looked great on my camera but not so great once I loaded them onto the computer. I've decided to try and load them anyway and see how it works out. If they are super choppy I apologize.

Run Wild For a Child

Last Sunday we headed up to San Francisco with Brian and Moria so we could all participate in the 26th annual Run For a Child road race supporting the S.F. Firefighters Toy Program. It was a much colder morning than our previous run and it made waking up to head up to the city a little difficult.

Thanks Brian and Moria for finding this race! (Notice Kevin in the background of this picture. This is one of his favorite things to do....especially to strangers).

We talked our friend Jason into running with us in the race too. The race was held in Golden Gate Park and he is currently in the process of moving about 4 blocks from there so he was able to bring a car load of stuff up with him. Jason does a lot of running, hiking, and rock climbing and I'd assumed he had run in lots of road races (especially because a close friend of his runs in them a lot), but this was his first 5k. Jason ended up finishing 16th overall and and 4th in his age group!

Since I ran the previous two runs in 24:44 I was really hoping to get closer to 24:00. Even though I didn't feel that great, especially the third mile, I figured I hadn't improved. I forgot my watch so I really had no idea how I was doing. My chip time for the run though ended up being 24:08 and I finished 7th in my age group so I was pretty pleased with the improvement. I guess if I want to improve much more I'm going to have be more diligent about training.

Kevin shaved another 10 seconds off of his time and finished 13th in his age group.
Not the best group shot with the shadows but a group shot still.

It was a blast doing the run together, but by the time we finally got home I was exhausted. Between working, getting ready for Thanksgiving, Thanksgiving, getting ready for a tailgate, the tailgate, and football I was just spent. It seemed appropriate to take a 3 hour nap and it was incredible. I rarely take naps and I almost forgot how amazing they can be when you really need one. After waking up I even managed to get the Christmas tree and most of the decorations up.

Last Game: Stanford vs Oregon State

This past weekend we hosted our final tailgate of the season. It was fairly low key since many people were out of town for the holiday weekend but enjoyable nonetheless. It was raining as we were setting up, but luckily it stopped for the remainder of the day. It was still plenty cold though.

It has been a blast this year organizing these events and while I'm sad football season has come to an end Kevin and I are both a little relieved to be done with tailgates. Our trunk has been filled with tailgate stuff all season and I am ready to clean out the car.

Some of the guys before heading into the game.


Kevin was able to make it down on the field one last time for the year.
Since Miguel only started watching football this year he is still working on learning what is going on. I did my best to try and explain stuff so hopefully I was an okay teacher.

Stanford shut out Oregon State 38-0 in an amazing finish to an awesome season. With Boise State's upset lost to Nevada last weekend, Stanford was able to move up in the BCS polls to #4. Hopefully they stay there after Auburn and Oregon play this weekend and that way they aren't denied a BCS bowl game. I can't wait to find out where they are headed!