Postcards from the Future

The spaceship earth ride allowed you to send "postcards from the future" to yourself right after the ride ended. So here they are: Amy & I, Kelly & Steve Markkanen.

Spaceship Earth

Spaceship Earth is a cool ride in the big "golf ball" thing at Epcot. At the end of the ride, they produce a fun cartoon featuring the people in the ride. I was able to get my video camera out for part of it featuring Amy and I. Enjoy!

Disneyworld pix

Just some random pictures from the trip. Kelly and I got to see a short, but free, concert of Boyz II Men at Epcot....all 3 of us won free "Year of a Million Dreams" Mickey Mouse Ears after riding the Haunted Mansion at the Magic Kingdom....then Markkanen joined us at Epcot and we all tried to imitate the gargoyle in the France section of the park.

Aerosmith Rock'n'Roller Coaster

Best ride at Hollywood Studios. Kelly was a bit nervous, but Amy convinced her to give it a try. Then Amy proceeded to do a little dance while we were waiting in line...HILARIOUS!

A Fantasmic Morning

A quick video of Amy's excitment...

Another Animal Kingdom Video

Just a quick video of Amy making fun of me and Kelly desperate to get a picture with Flick from the movie "Ants".

Animal Kingdom videos

My sisters and I went to Animal Kingdom our first day at Disney World. Amy made fun of me for videotaping as soon as we got into the park, but I was anxious to try out my camera. I took several videos, but there was a clear winner of the day: the fruitbats. The bats were amazing, but I must say - we got more of a show than we expected. Just watch and you'll understand. LOL! Besides the bats, we did the safari, the Dinosaur ride, watched "It's Tough to Be a Bug", and rode the Everest Expedition 3 times! Kelly was about to puke after the third time, so we quickly made our way back to the hotel.

I turned 35!

For my 35th birthday last month, my roomies and I set up the house to have an art party. Everyone who came over had to make a piece of art for me. The rationale was that I would be moving into my house with lots of bare walls and they could help me decorate it. Well....I didn't end up buying the house (active termite infestation with lots of dry rot damage), but at least we had fun playing with crayons, colored pencils, paints, markers, and pastels.

Visit from Faerosa!

My girlfriend, Treena, and her husband, Jason...along with their "oh-so-cute" daughter, Fae, were in Sacramento last week for a California Climate Conference. I had to get the camera out while Fae was running around our house. She is SO adorable, I kept telling Treena that I'm going to kidnap her. :)

Inside pix of the potential new home!

I went over to the house for the inspection. The House Inspector guy, Jeff, was VERY cool and let me tag along. I figured it would be a good learning process since I've never owned a home before....and it'd be wise to finally learn the difference between gas pipes and water pipes. Jeff was awesome and spent a good 4 hours with me. He explained everything in detail so that I would also know what to look for in future homes. He's been in the business quite awhile and has been featured on HGTV a couple of times. He said there was nothing major that would cost a lot of money to fix, but a few things that did need to be attended too in the near future. But overall, it was a sound home. I took some photos while I was there: 1) taken from front door looking at the living room with fireplace and the formal dining area is off to the left 2) main bathroom in the hallway 3) one of the bedrooms 4) the kitchen (needs a fridge and stove) 5) view of the backyard through a window in the back bedroom.

I'm officially a GEEK

I went to my first LAN party hosted by the great Eric Buchman from work. He had tons of computers set up and we played all kinds of geeky computer games like Battlefield 2, Medal of Honor, and Unreal Tournament. I arrived around 4:30 pm and stayed until 10:30 pm....then had to drive to work and do the midnight shift. Crazy night, but I really had fun. Eric did a great job of playing movie clips and giving us comical quizzes in between games, plus all the smack talk provided much entertainment! One of the characters I created was "Twinky" the buff military medic. It's kind of embarrassing when you're supposed to run around healing the other players, but every time I got off the helicopter I got shot within 30 seconds and had to start over. Juskie (in the red hat), another co-worker, was sitting next to me and he kept dying, too. We had our own competition going on just to see who died less in each round we played.

I might be a HOMEOWNER!!!

So I've been looking at homes ever since I moved to Sacramento (officially a year ago this week). I've put in several offers only to be outbid by others despite the fact that I've made offers over the asking price! Finally got an accepted offer and have included a picture...I need to take more because this was the only one on the web. Quick MLS facts: 3 bd/2 bath, 1455 square feet, 0.19 acre lot, fireplace with gas starter, hardwood floors, 1 car garage. Oh - and my commute time to work will be a whopping 2 minutes!!! The home inspection should be this coming Monday or Tuesday and I plan to crawl under the house and into the attic with the inspector. I've never owned a home before, so I figure it's time to learn the difference between gas pipes and water pipes. :) I'll post more pictures soon, but if you want to check it out on zillow, the address is 2517 Catalina, zip code 95821. But don't look at the street view, it's the wrong house, just go for the Bird's Eye view. Plenty of room in the backyard for a pool!

You be the judge!

Amy vs. Clay. Which one is which? See....can't hardly tell the difference! :)

Pix of my family from Megan's wedding...

My whole family was together for Megan's wedding so we had a lovely group photo taken. My sister, Amy, used to shave her head and is finally growing her hair out. She showed up the night before the wedding in a fun crazy outfit complete with tophat. She finally removed the hat and we teased her saying she looked like Clay Aiken. And then a couple of beautiful shots of us 3 sisters...except when I got something stuck in my teeth and had to use one of the straws from the cocktail hour to relieve my gums...CLASSY!

Pix from my Cousin's wedding in NC

So my cousins, Megan & Scott (brother and sister) both got married this year in North Carolina....not to each other, though! :) Scott got married to Beth in April and Megan married Rick in June. It was great getting together with the family on each occasion. My sister, Kelly, sent me some of the photos. These pix are from Scott's wedding at a gorgeous old castle. They had a chocolate fondue fountain!!!!! Loved that and so did Megan's man, Rick! And finally a pic of me and Kelly.

Soroka's Party

Because Dave is heading to D.C., the office figured he was going to need a new suit. Mark Strobin picked it out all by himself...I can't remember if he got it at Nordstrom's or Salvation Army, but Dave looks SMASHING! :) The next morning I enjoyed a delicious breakfast at First Awakenings with Markkanen, Kate, and Duane...he'll love that I posted him in mid-breakfast bite.

Lightning & Fires!

I drove down to Monterey last weekend to attend Soroka's (Monterey WCM) going away party as he prepares to take a new job in Washington, D.C. On the drive down there was an incoming storm system with the most lightning strikes I've seen in a LOOOOONG time. As I drove close to the Monterey Bay, I saw one storm cell that kept pumping out one strike after another. I stuck my camera through the sunroof to take the photo. For those of you familiar with the area, that storm cell is right over Pacific Grove on the Monterey Peninsula. When I drove back on Sunday, I found out that over 800 fires had been started and the smoke was filling up the Sacramento Valley. You can barely see the hills in the distance from the hazy conditions. I promptly started to work midnight shifts. One morning, I decided to capture the unique, bright orange color of the sun as it rose.

2nd Saturday in Sacramento

I finally got a chance to check out Second Saturday where all the art galleries stay open late in the midtown area. They block off some of the streets, everyone's walking around socializing, musicians play in the streets and there are lots of cool dining/drinking establishments along the way. One art gallery had some very funky animal art (note: NO animals were harmed in the making of this art...they're not real). My friends, Dan and Jeannie, posed with the squirrel before heading out on their tandem bike. I hung out with a group of people for dinner and drinks...Kendra ( a tango gal) and Micah (an artist) are ignoring me as I took a quick pic, but they were fun to hang out with along with Michelle, Lud, and Henry.

Some wedding pix of me!

No...I'm not the one getting married, but I found these shots on Lisa & Ben's blog (from the Tucson wedding). I rarely get photos of myself when I do wedding photography, so thought I'd post these. The first shot is me in action as I shoot from above at the very beginning of the ceremony. Several people said I looked like a sniper - all in black up on the roof. The second photo is me getting a chance to relax with my Hawaii friends at the reception. Bob & Maureen work at the Honolulu forecast office and are great people to hang out with!

"Let's get ready to RUMBLE!"

I started boxing at a gym called PrimeTime Boxing in Sacramento about 5 months ago. I have to say it's the most motivating, challenging and FUN workout I've ever done. I always look forward to going even though I know they're going to kick my a$$ during the workout. The owners of the gym are Cary and Angelo Nunez. Angelo used to be Oscar de La Hoya's sparring partner and Cary is a highly trained female boxer...one of just a few in the US. They got together with Audi, Bistro 33 (a popular Sacramento restaurant), and some local fashion designers for a huge event in El Dorado Hills on June 12. Audi released their new A4 car, great food was served, there was a fashion show and, of course, some fights! The highlight was that they got Michael Buffer to come to the event...he's the guy famous for announcing "Let's get ready to rumble!" He's in the first photo and was doing the "ble" part of "rumble" when I snapped the pic. The second photo is Angelo and Cary. Third shot is some boxing action followed by the obligatory bikini-clad girl walking around the ring. The last picture is me with my friend, Dennis. He started boxing one month before I did and we keep each other motivated during the workouts. I'm so proud of him because he's lost a lot of weight in the past 6 months and his doctor has taken him off his cholesterol/high blood pressure medicine because he's getting so healthy! Way to go, Dennis!!!!