Wow - What has been happening??

Wholly cow. I guess I pretty much almost forgot about this little blogspot. OK - well maybe I can get back into this. I sure wood like two.
Quick run down off what has happened this year of 2011, thus far.

2011 Winter: Best skiing of my life - I almost feel like I ONLY did Powder skiing. So fabulous. The video I captured isn't awesome - but that is cuz I'm bad at filming not because the skiing was bad!! I got super sick at my birthday - haven't been that sick since I was a kid. Luckily I did recover enough to go mountain biking with Toro! and then to have a few beers at the Russian River Brew Co with my brother and Toro and Rand. Great day. Being that sick gave me a chance to think about life a lot - weird.
The winter never let go - just kept skiing powder all through April, then in May I had surgery to fix my ankle. I have lived with that janky thang for 16 years and finally got it fixed. It finally was impacting my life the past 18months, so it was and easy decision - that and I found a great surgeon/doctor.
4 months of recover....lots of sitting on my but with my foot up - but once I was able to work out again - BAM! I'm back. In fact, I am probably stronger now than ever before in my life. Thank you David and High Intensity Interval Training (H.I.I.T.)! It is like cross-fit, but we do almost all body weight exercises. Totally recommended. Send me a note and I'll send you some workouts to get you started.
Oh - I should mention that I went to Las Vegas 1 week after surgery. Wow - that was tough - but also really fun.
Dave and Danielle Metres got married up in the Sierra - that was pretty much my first time going out without a boot on my foot after the surgery. Then time for Bral and GG: Mountain biking in Downieville with Bral for his bachelor party. Great time. The wedding was wonderful! All the Groggels spoke and it was hilarious! Even though I had learned some new dance moves I never got a chance to dance cuz the Colby Girls owned the floor the whole night!
Drink or Treating almost didn't happen cuz FFI owned me. Luckily, Pia came out the Livermore, got me out of work - helped me finish my costume and we were able to get to 2 wineries before the day was over. Ale house for dinner, then to Chip's house for a Halloween/Birthday party. Good Fun!
November has started - I'm learning how to kick a soccer ball for the first time in my life and playing goalie for coed league team. Very fun! Otherwise - I have just been cleaning and fixing up Sebastian's house and yard. Y'all should come by for a visit and we can tune some skis! Or sit out back where there will soon be a little fireplace. Nice!
OH - how could I forget? I have also helped Stefan get his "Jar of Honey" business into action. We sold over $1500 worth of honey this year. Most notable is the selling of honey comb and honey to Boot n Shoe Service right here in Oakland. Part of the slow food movement. They are doing great things.
It is late fall, so the honey production is over for the year, but Patrick and I will be nursing this hive through the winter.
Pleasanton Hive

on my way back to the bay

Wow! I doubt 2 weeks have every flown by so quickly. I have been in 2 countries, 5 different cities (villages), and met loads of people. Most of them spoke some english. I am truly amazed how easy it was to communicate with people in Thailand and Laos. Even in little villages that are only accessable by skinny river boat. This must really be the travel season because there were white people everywhere. It was hard not to run into other white folk. No big deal, we did our best to hang out with the locals and stick to our own agenda. Yu, Kim, and I had a great time. I wish I could of had more time, but am SUPER grateful for the time I did have. Monday it is back to the grind stone....just after I find tickets home for christmas.
oh - speaking of christmas - it is everywhere. Bangkok was decorated with snowflakes and christmas trees and the hong kong airport has green and red sales all over. crazy.

I hear its snowing in Tahoe, and I can't wait to go skiing. I suspect my first turns will be at boston mills in Ohio. Tiger Web Cam

5 days, 4 nights in Vang Vieng, Laos

So much Fun. The computer access is slow so I have not been able to upload any photos yet, but this trip has been fabulous thus far. We spent 1 night in Vientiene, then scootered up the road 150Km to Vang Vieng. This is a popular town for is beautiful meadows contrasted against steep mountains, the almost countless number of caves, and then tubing and kayaking for the more adventurous. We spent some time along the river, not ever tubing, but hitting the rope swings - which were huge!
Yu, Jasper, and I all got pretty good at doing the swing to back flip. I hope the videos will make it through the trip.
We have loaded our selves up and will be heading north to Luang Prabang. My next update should be from there.
All is well, and trust you are doing well too. Thanks for checking in.

wow, I'm in Hong Kong.

On my way to Bangkok and then Laos to catch up with Yu and Kim. Just been hanging out here in the Hong Kong Airport. Hopefully I'll be able to keep the blog up to date with goings on. Right now I haven't taken any pictures, but I will say that Chatay Pacific Airlines are nice.

Loads of Updates

My apologies for all who wish to follow along on my adventures, I have been having lots of fun, taking picture, and NOT updating my blog. I finally updated the photo site with 16 new albums. Check them out!
http://www.g-funk.smugmug.com/

Some points to mention have been surfing, visiting Home, Drink or Treating and catching . Here are quick links to the albums:
surfing:
Surf Lesson with Michelle & Hill
or
Surfing with Toro
some of my favorite pictures are here:
Surfing at Bolinas Jetty

Visting Home in October with Leland and Kimberly:
Album

Drink or Treating with Pia and the whole gang
Drink or Treating Group Photo

and the BIG FISH!!
50 lbs of Fish!

cheers.

Aug 15th - Tri for Fun!!

Bral, Toro, Hill, and myself all ran the 22nd Annual Tri for Fun at Shadow Cliffs in Pleasanton, Ca. We ran along with some 1200 other participants. It was a blast! This was the first triathlon for Toro and myself. Bral and Hill have both ran a few Tri's each. It was a good thing to do early saturday morning.

click on the photo to see the photo album.
Toro also posted some photos - you can check those out here: Toro's Photos!
We strolled into Pleasanton downtown for some brecky. There we saw a 1982 Delorian in mint condition for sale for $25,900. It was originally purchased in 1982 for $25,000. This car only had 13,000miles on it! crazy.

Sarah Waterson marries Charles Stone!

My good friend Sarah Waterson moved out to Berkeley for graduate school. She played ultimate in sunny california and found Stone on a co-ed team in the bay area. They played together on Solid Gold for several years developing a tight group of players and friends. Sarah and Charles tied their lives together August 1st. It was a beautiful day in Tilden park, in Berkeley. I tried to take a more artsy photo of the event:

It was fun because we got to play summer games in the field, and also because I got to see a bunch of friends from Dorm Life of college. Most notedly, and probably traveling the farthest to get there was Bob Grosholz. Bob now lives up in Maine on the Atlantic coast. Must be aweome, I hope I can visit there some day!
Here is a photo of Bob, Sarah, and myself enjoying the wonderful day.