Bowled Over

Check out the pics here!

Extreme Makeover: California Edition

Tess & I had a great flight to Utah and made our way up to Idaho. No sooner had I arrived when Dad, Mer, Maur & I packed up the car and headed up to Northern California to see Ryan &; Miranda's new house. They had a fierce battle with the California real estate market and finally proved victorious with a cute fixer-upper in San Jose, minutes away from Ry's job at Apple.

After a VERY long 15-hour drive (with the best entertainment proving to be Maureen's 5th-grader book, Diary of a Wimpy Kid), we took on a whirlwind of a 48-hour home makeover. We tackled project after project and were quite pleased with how much we were able to get done, including: replacing wood paneling with a real wall; lots of patching; painting the living room, kitchen, dining area and bathroom; new locks on the doors; new roof on the shed; new light fixtures in the kitchen & dining area; cleaning & refinishing the kitchen cabinets; new knobs on the cabinets; and installing a new disposal.

The first night we knocked off before sundown to see Half Moon Bay, a beautiful but FREEZING cold oceanfront state park.  We were so cold that Dad resorted to wearing Miranda's jacket and a towel over his head.

The drive home was more eventful than we bargained for.  Some blamed me for gloating about how we had missed all the construction traffic; some blamed Maureen for commenting how she'd never changed a tire before; some blamed Meredith for hitting a major pothole amidst miles coned-off road.  I think in the end we all agreed to blame the cursed state of Nevada for the TWO flat tires that brought our good time to a screeching halt.  Fast forward two hours of hanging out in the Nevada desert with only rolling mice heads and difficult tow truck dispatchers for entertainment, and we were finally towed an hour to Twin Falls where we spent the night.

We were happy to have made the trip and even happier to be home.  I think Mom (who bravely tended Tess & Lauren during our 4+ day absence) was relieved to finally see us.  We've been sticking pretty close to home because no one is anxious to get back in a car again.

Ryan comes tomorrow--I think we'll be up for more fun by then!

Tennis Anyone?

Today my dad and I spent the afternoon at the Legg Mason Tennis Classic in Washington, D.C. A guy in my dad's ward who works for the company that runs the tournament invited us to watch from the comfort of an air-conditioned box area.

I was only slightly familiar with the players in the afternoon singles semifinal match--Marcos Baghdatis (ranked 25th in the world, from Cyprus) (I think I've seen him play once or twice on television; Andre Agassi's final career victory--a grueling five-setter--came across Baghdatis in the 3rd round of the 2006 U.S. Open) and Xavier Malisse (ranked 62, from Belgium) (I had never seen him play)--but I enjoyed the match.

Malisse

Baghdatis

At the outset, Malisse appeared to have a superior serve and forehand, but Baghdatis was the more consistent player. He rolled in the first set, 6-2. There was some drama in the second set when Baghdatis, down 4 games to 3, suddenly pulled up during a point, grabbed his ankle, and fell to the ground. It appeared that he had twisted his ankle. After an injury timeout, however, Baghdatis returned to the court and managed to hold serve, tying the set 4-4. Baghdatis broke Malisse's serve to go up 6-5, but Malisse returned the favor in the next game. In the tiebreak, Baghdatis jumped out to a 6-1 lead before finally closing out Malisse, 7-4.

We watched the first set of the afternoon doubles match semifinal before heading home.

A song dedicated to Miriam and Tess:

Fast As You Can (Fiona Rides the Metro)

Off on a big jet plane

Mir and Tess jetted off to Idaho via SLC this evening. I miss them!

Since I don't have any photos from this trip, I'll repost a few from their trip to Idaho a year ago. It's amazing how much Tess has grown in one year!

"Look, Momma, that man just loaded our bags on the wrong plane."

"Tess, just feel how soft this poison sumac is!"

A song for Mir and Tess:

Extraordinary Machine (Tess asks for this song by name in the car)