Images by John 'K'

We’re a couple of weeks into 2008, and in an attempt to try and keep things sort of up-to-date here, I thought it was time to put a little update together…

 

So things have settled back into a normal routine again at work after the holidays, and as the company I work for continues to grow we are being moved into a new building on our ever expanding campus. We actually move at the start of next week, but we took an informal tour around the new building yesterday and it’s cool 🙂 No doubt there’ll be more on this from me after we’ve moved in.

 

Things also seem to be settling into a normal routine at home. My wife is back to work too, back to those "lovely" early morning starts, but for her things are a little uncertain for the future as in an attempt to address some interesting state-wide budget issues there have been a lot of education cuts announced, and if they are executed the program that she tutors on for the district is likely to be cut. Sarah is seeing a reduction in her hours after the holidays – she’s still working "part time" so her time is more flexible than her full-time colleagues. It looks like she’s making a bit of an effort to socialise there too, and some of her colleagues have invited her on a trip down to LA (and Universal Studios) in March. Paula continues to have "fun" trying to challenge her school activities, with time requirements for Drama class performances clashing with the JV basketball schedule. Add to that she has picked up yet another injury during practice; after breaking her nose towards the end of last year, she’s now injured her knee (however it seems to be mending well so she’ll hopefully be playing again before the end of this week).

 

As members of the Monterey Bay Aquarium, we make occasional trips down to Monterey as a family, and this past weekend saw us making our first trip of 2008 to the aquarium. After a slight detour at the outlet mall at Gilroy to do a bit of shopping we made our way down to Monterey and the aquarium. Last year on my birthday they had a new freshwater otter pup born; Shani (which means "curiosity"), the third African spotted-necked otter born at the aquarium, was recently put into the public exhibition and so we spent a lot of time in the "Wild About Otters" wing admiring these cute and playful creatures. Turned out we had timed our visit to that section perfectly, as shortly after we got there they were fed, which led to a lot of really fun play activity while they ate. I can’t recommend the aquarium enough – if you’re ever lucky enough to visit the San Francisco Bay Area in California, be sure to spend some time in and around Monterey and be sure to visit the aquarium. I’ve popped a few photos up… see here.

 

I’ve also popped some photos from a recent trip up Mt Hamilton (another of the East Bay peaks) here.

 

That’s about it for now – I’ll try and keep things updated a little more frequently than I did last year.