Pleasant Hill Fourth and Last Day

I am writing this as I sit in the United Red Carpet Lounge with Sean. He is leaving at 8:00 on a flight to Copenhagen and I am leaving at 10:30 for Rochester and home. I had a wonderful visit. I had some great times with Sam, playing indoor and outdoor games. He has quite an interesting personality and a nicely cultivated sense of humor. He and Julie left for a Tiger Scout pack meeting just before we left for the airport.

We all survived the switch to DST although the day did get started a little slowly. I went up to the Pleasant Hill City Hall to take some pictures but the overcast light frustrated my efforts. However, next time I can see that a visit around sunset with the accent lights turned on will produce some very nice images.

I had two helpings of Julie's muesli--very delicious. We went on a field trip to a wildlife museum and then had a lunch of lasagna leftovers and delicious lamb chops.

See all the pictures in the Picasa album.

Pleasant Hill Third Day

The big activity for Saturday was Sam's birthday pictures. We had a 10:00 appointment at Sears Portrait Studio. Sam is getting quite good at this. He takes direction very well and has such a sweetness about him along with a "big boy look" that the results are quite stunning. After that we all had the traditional after photo shoot lunch at Johnny Rocket's in the mall.

We returned home and Sam got back to work on his 1000 piece Lego kit that he had gotten for his birthday; the rest of the household took some naps! Sean and I walked up to the Ace Hardware Store to get some closet hardware for a project that he will tackle Sunday. Sam and I got in some play time in the backyard: baseball, soccer, and football. Later Sean and Sam played some basketball.

Julie and I went to 5:00 Mass at Christ the King and then came home to a yummy lasagna dinner followed, of course, by some ice cream for dessert. The two big events in the evening were

the completion of Sam's Lego project which he proudly showed us. The other was the inaugural voyage by the new hamster, Speedy McNibbles, in her exercise ball. She quite good at it and seemed to be actually steering around the house. Tonight is the night for day light savings time to begin. When we went to Starbuck's Saturday

morning, the barista reminded us to set our clocks ahead one hour and then observed that it gives the farmers an extra hour of daylight. For a minute there, I thought I was in Indiana.

To see more pictures, visit the Picasa album.

Pleasant Hill Second Day

Because of the three hour time difference, I am up at a very early hour and learned of the earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Following that news was a constant all day. However, life went on here with Sammy getting off to school and Julie to work. Sean had a couple of phone meetings in the morning. Ana electrician came by to give an estimate on work they needed done as well as an arborist looking especially at the black walnut tree in back. Then Sean and I transported several cartons of books to contribute at the library.

Wiht all that accomplished, we went to the movies and saw Battle: Los Angeles. It was an entertaining action flick with awesome special effects. Of course, the good guys won. We picked up Sam who had stayed for an after school celebration of March birthdays, picked up some great Mexcican food, and had a leisurely dinner at home.

Saturday the big event is Sam's birthday photo session at Sear's followed by lunch at Johnny Rockets. I am looking forward to that.

Pleasant Hill First Full Day

While I arrived on Thursday, things didn't get cracking until Friday, which was Sam's seventh birthday. Sam went off to school while Sean, Julie and I spent the day around the house getting a number of tasks done, mainly lightening the load at 167 Cynthia Lane. We made numerous trips to the Salvation Army, the recycling center, and the Crisis Center in Concord. We dropped off supplies of bottled water and toiletries Sean collects on his travels which they packaged in packs for homeless persons.

Sam had a great day at school sharing yummy cupcakes with classmates. We picked him up and went immediately to his favorite place to eat, Sweet Tomatoes.

We came home and he and Sean--mostly Sean--assembled one of the gifts he received at his party last Sunday, a table top foosball game. Sam and I played three games as soon as it was ready to go. After a game of checkers and then some soccer scrimmage in the backyard, Sam visited with Grandma on Skype, followed by birthday cake and the opening of presents that had accumulated at home. His favorite was a 1000 piece Lego Kingdoms Castle. He will get right on that when he gets home from school Friday. After watching some Arthur on TV, he was read a story and went to bed. Grandaddy actually beat him to bed after this long day of activity.

View the Picasa photo album of the trip.