Updates

Howdy folks!

Been alittle while, so here are the latest bits of my family life.

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Just spent Friday and Saturday night camping at the Pleasanton Fairgrounds for the Girl Scouts 100 year celebration.

We met up with our neighbors, the Horn family for dinner in Dublin and then got to the campgrounds afterdark. We set up our tent in about 15 minutes, but the Horn's tent was a bit more complicated. So that was a good laugh. Lights out for all the kids by 10:30 PM, and then everyone was up again at 6:30 AM.

I didn't stick around for Saturday's celebration events as I had one job to finish up. I left around 9 AM, and could see hundreds of cars gridlocked on the freeway trying to get to the event. When I got home, I just luxuriated in an empty house for an hour and then headed out to the customer's rental property. By 1 PM, I was back at home and exercising on the treadmill while watching the Giants on TV. Yeah, that was nice.

By the time I got back to the girl scout event at 4 pm, it cooled down and was considerably less crowded. At dinner time, we split up from the Horns and headed back to the camp to watch the fireworks. Joanna was so pooped, she almost fell asleep in the lawnchair but the show started. Again, everyone was in bed by 10:30. I tried to stay awake, but fell asleep playing a game on the ipad. It fell from the top of my chest onto Jackie's head. Doh!

Good bits: Joanna says she likes camping. Jackie and I have stiff bodies from bad air mattresses. So we have to figure something out for the next trip.

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Today, I went to my new exercise endeavor: table tennis class. Between 10 and 15 students share four heavy duty tables. My lesson today encompassed chopping the ball and imparting spin. I picked up on it, but did not really apply much power or control to the strokes.

The other two new students in the class are 55+ year old ladies. Watching them pick it up was cool. Although some of their strokes resembled axe strikes. Our first two classes, I paired almost exclusively with them. However by the end of the educational portion, I was promoted to playing with the nine year old boy.

After one on one play, we started doing doubles table tennis. Much exercise ensued. One table, four players. We take turns returning the ball, no matter where it is hit on the table. So the game is more about physical positioning and strategy than shot execution.  Standing on balls of your feet, springy and flexible, moving in and out, wary of shots in the opposite direction of where you are headed.

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Until next time... hopefully sooner than later.