President's weekend

I took a vacation day on Feb 17th so we could meet Dean & Madelyn C at the Oakland airport. They were dropping off their rental car after spending a few days in the Napa area. We picked them up in a pouring rain and checked into the Prescott Hotel in San Francisco. After wine, cheese, and crackers in our room (and a Cindy-wine spilling), we had a terrific dinner at Fino's. I had the Rosemary chicken, and everyone else had the garlic prawns. Afterwards, we did nightcaps at the Le Grand Hotel bar where Cindy and Madelyn were introduced to Lemon Drop cocktails. After a tour through the lobby of The Clift, we retired to our rooms (although my spy tells me that Madalyn snuck down for one more Lemon Drop). Breakfast was at The Daily Grill and then across the Golden Gate Bridge to head back to Sacto. Ryan, Alex, and Onita came by the house on Saturday and we had a Tri-Tip dinner, while Lindsay went out on the town with Christine. We dropped D & M off at the Sacto airport at 1:00pm on Sunday and hoped that Dean would get the "good news" call for the Napa job he interviewed for on Wednesday. Looks like it is going to be a sunny day today, so I'll do my walk/jog thing (3 straight weeks now) and enjoy the day off.

Vacation planning

Finally got the vacation schedule completed. We're going to the Westin in Maui from March 22nd thru March 29th, and booked the Santa Cruz beachhouse from June 18th thru June 25th. Cindy is going to fly down to San Diego on March 11th to visit her Mom and will come back on March 13th. Madalyn & Dean C are in the Bay Area this week while Dean interviews for a job. I think we're picking them up at the Oakland Airport on Friday and we'll stay in San Francisco on Friday night at the Prescott Hotel and drive back to Sacto on Saturday, I think they fly out on Sunday. Dean S and I sat courtside on Feb 9th to watch the Kings beat the Chicago Bulls. We sat with Ron Sargis and his wife. Before the game, we got a behind-the-scenes tour of Arco, had a buffet dinner, and got Kevin Martin's autograph on our tickets. We saw most of the players getting ready for the game, and then talked with Steve Kerr after the victory. We also got 18 holes in at Haggin on Feb 11th with Dick G and Marty B. Yesterday was Valentine's Day, and we kept it low-key. We're having some electrical work done on the house soon (new panel, some rewiring, outside lights, etc etc), and, of course we still need to do some upper deck maintenance, make a decision on the lower deck, and get the fences water-sealed.