I have been working in Richmond this past week, but make it home at least one or two nights during the week. On this Saturday I had a sailing race in Santa Cruz. The day was nice (70F) and sunny the wind was out of the north… and west …and east. There were such a ridiculous amount of wind shifts that the races were really a crap shoot. We decided that a trip to the bar would be better and only raced in two of the three scheduled races.

Singers in Lederhosen. I would ove to get a pair.

Sunday we went to Oktoberfest hear in Campbell. A lot of people there, and a lot of interesting characters. This guy with a bird came by and Brenda commented on it so of course got to hold it. She also petted the bird and was very excited about doing so.

This week we are at the Plugs hanging out and Keeping their son Trevor in line. Sunday night we had some other youth group kids over and were able to play Risk (the game or world domination). We did not have the time to finish, but I had everything but Europe and Australia and was obviously going to win.

Brenda with the bird. I was secretly hoping that it would crap on her, but it didn't.

Pretty in Pink???

There are no good pictures from this week in adventures. I am presently up in Richmond and will be working up here for about two months. This weekend we went to the mall on Saturday. First we went to babies R us. By saying we went, I really mean that Brenda went in and I sat in the car. I do not like shopping and it seems to be more work than actually being at work. I get more tired after three hours of shopping then ten hours of hard labor.

Sunday after church we went to Santa Cruz to go out to eat and get some oysters for dinner. Downtown SC is full of weirdos trying to look like individuals. It seems as though people are trying to dress like they do not care about how they dress. That is the dumbest thing I have ever heard of. I say instead of wearing old vintage clothes to act like you don’t care, just put on a pair of sweats and you will look like you have totally given up on life altogether. Weird is not cool. Just stick to the old t-shirt and blue jeans and it will all be good.
The local weirdo who is always at the same spot in downtown santa cruz. The " pink umbrella man"

Bluegrass and...mmmmm...other grass

Friday, the Schenks came to visit us and the Webb’s came over for some food and fun. Of course Ethan is very smart and he can walk about 9 steps before eating it and getting back up for more of the same. Brenda is hoping that we can have a kid that is such good mannered (that is when we decide to have kids).


Ethan and I

The cute kid.

On Saturday Kevin and I went Folfing (frisbee golfing) We had a great time and were given directions to a new course that is even better than the one we go to usually. We let a couple of guys go in front of us on the first tee because they looked like they really knew what they were doing. We passed them up on the fourth tee because they had to stop to smoke a bowl (of the illegal variety of course) before moving on. On the next hole it overlooks a vacant parking lot and the hole is on the other side. The parking area is out of bounds and you have to hug the edge to get to the hole. They sure thought it was funny when we were overlooking the parking lot and they yelled that the parking lot was out of bounds. I didn’t get the joke, but I bet I would have if I was smoking what they were.
Before the fling of the frisbee. Kevin has a wicked hook.
Kevin at hole 1.

We then went to a school fundraiser where I schooled Brenda in the obstacle course. She began taking on the kids and found a way to cheat. She is usually upstanding and fair in everything, but after racing the third kid she must have been tired and did not want to loose so she took a shortcut (and of course I pointed it out).

The challenge.Brenda tdelling me to "bring it on".
That night we went to a Canadian Thanksgiving celebration of one of our elders and a few of his friends (about 15-20 of them). We had a great time and left before the Canadiens started taking in French (about 40% of the attendees were Canadians).

Picture from camera phone that didn't turn out to great, but look at all of the desserts.


Sunday after church we went to San Francisco (referred to from now on as the "city"). There was a free bluegrass festival in the park this weekend as well as fleet week. The festival was great and we got to see great music and a whole lot of weird people. It was like something out of deep space nine some of the characters up there. Fleet week is when the military(navy) comes into the bay. The Blue Angels were in town (even though the a hole in government in the city tried to get the banned for so called "safety reasons"). When they flew over the concert many of the concert attendees gave them a one finger salute (those who do that should go on the front line and should be shot). As we found our seats Karen (the pregnant preachers wife) sat down and not five min. later the guy next to her lit a fag (the non-sexual kind) and proceeded to get high. Karen did her best to stay out of the smoke, but it was a frivolous effort because over half of the people there were smoking weed. It was a little weird to see Emmylou Harris singing great songs about the saving grace of Jesus and people getting high and expressing themselves freely. What a weird city. Emmylou was great and we all had a good time.

Emmylou onstage

Brad, Karen, and me of course.
A guy in a hat offering a toke to his friend. Golden Gate park is more of a weed hangout than a park.
Look at this guys boots. not the wieerdest person, but my camera could only click so fast.

Karen and Brenda.

Here is a nice video of the concert and people dancing to Emmylou. Very good time.

Not much

Here is a picture of the pumpkin I just carved last night. It is lit by a candle.

And here is a better picture of the whole pumpkin.

It seems as thought there is not much going on around here, but I guess there still is. Brenda is back in school and it is in full swing. That helps us get into a routine and keeps our weekends fairly “normal” and relaxing (instead of long trips cramming in the fun, we get to relax). Friday we went over to our Dave and Becky’s house to play games and make homemade pizza. We do not hang out with Dave and Becky very much, but enjoy it every time we do.

Saturday we went on our churches 17th annual bike hike from south San Jose to Morgan Hill. It is 17 miles long and all different ages participated (a kid about 7years old biked the entire way along with a guy about 60…impressive). At the end there is a great BBQ and potluck(as all church functions have). Only one kid got lost and was found by strangers along the trail, but he was returned without major incident. That night Brenda and I went out to eat at El Pollo Loco (a fast food place that seems to be healthier than most (this is not the reason for our restaurant choice, but the coupons we had were the major factor in our food choice…I don’t care what I eat as long as it is cheap). Then we went to the Nordstrom Rack (an outlet type store). They are the only store that I have found I can count on having my size shoes in stock and easily visible on the shelve. normally when you ask if they have any sz15 shoes after they have stopped laughing they go in the back and bring out the two ugliest pairs of shoes they have (one of them is always a old man Velcro strap type). They also have a lot of sz17 and we even saw a sz20(I think if you have shoes that big you just special order them because I have never heard of anyone carrying those in stock).

Sunday we had a few new teachers over and another girl new to the area from church for games and food. Event though some were from Calvin instead of Dordt they turned out to be nice and we will probably have them over again.

I am sitting right now doing “shore watch” at work. This is a dumb Chevron this that makes someone watch others do work and make sure that they are safe on the water. I am hoping only to have to do it for an hour or so because it is very boring and even an idiot can do it. There is security guards around here as well and one not far from me. He sits in one spot all day for 10hours and does absolutely nothing…well I guess that is not true. He get out of his truck, looks at himself in the reflection of the truck, and practices his tae-kwan-do/ judo/karate_____ (fill in the blank with any other weird martial are you can think of). The people I know in martial arts are all relatively normal, but there are so many more that seem to be a bit off.



Sailing last Wednesday



Very nice night. I am hoping for a repeat this Wednesday.

Joel. I do read all of the responses multiple time during the normal day. I would like you email address if possible.