Giving Hope

Water ... Food ... Health Care ... Education ... simple things that we all take for granted right? For over a year now I have supported a HopeChild through World Vision, a Christian humanitarian organization dedicated to working with children, families and their communities worldwide to reach their full potential by tackling the causes of poverty and injustice, in the hopes of making a difference in at least one child and one community.

Over 6,000 children per day loose a parent to AIDS and millions have already been orphaned, making the HIV/AIDS pandemic the greatest medical, social and economic challenge the world as a whole now faces (FACTS). So I challenge you to do something to change the life of a child living in community hard hit by HIV/AIDS. Start changing a child's life today.

World Vision Experience: AIDS

Carrie Underwood - I'll Stand By You

Amgen Tour of California

Although it is one of the worst days of the year to drive to work, it is by far my favorite day of the year. The Amgen Tour of California circled the State Capitol today, finishing directly in front of my parking garage and going past my office building. It was great to walk around the vendor booths and get some great pictures of what I believe is one of the Capitol's busiest (non-protest) days. It was great to see the estimated 35,000+ people having a great time and watching the ride loop around Downtown Sacramento three times before finishing Stage 2.

Advertising for Google

I thought I would share this post from LifeSnacks with everyone ... believe it or not the "Google Hat" really is a Google freebie and also available for sale at the Google Store.

Supporting Our Local Small Businesses
Just wanted to provide some advertising on our far-reaching amazingly-popular blog for the little company down the street ...

Consumed

It was a weekend of firsts. It started on Friday with my first snowboarding experience at Sierra at Tahoe. Although the first few runs before my lesson were scary and involved many falls, I got the hang of it after my instructor told me how to turn. Thanks to Dave and Any Mountain Sports the day only cost $54 for a lift ticket, snowboard rental and 2.5 hour lesson, so it was well worth trying it out once and although I may try it again, I don't think I'll be giving up skiing anytime soon. With the falls there was one casualty, my digital camera's screen cracked, so I'll be getting that repaired, it still took good pictures for the rest of the weekend though. After a long day on the slopes I headed down to the Heavenly Village Shops to hang out for a little while before The Shore's "Consumed Winter Retreat." While at the village I purchased the "Heavenly Bear" to add to my growing collection of stuffed animals from various cities and places and ate dinner at Baja Fresh, where I ran into The Shore's pastor who was also there grabbing some food prior to the retreat starting.

Consumed was an amazing retreat and it was The Shore's first ever retreat as a group. It was great to see how well everyone worked together to make sure it went off without a problem and the 120+ people there all had an amazing time. We were able to connect as friends in ways never imagined and have a great time at Zephyr Point Conference Center in Zephyr Cove, Nevada. The views from the conference center and my room were amazing and as you can see I took lots of pictures of Lake Tahoe and some of the fun we had throughout the retreat. Also, I have posted a video for Chris Tomlin's new song "God of This City" which became one of the theme songs for the weekend.

click here for more pictures

I'm Going to Disney World ... no really

I'm taking a vacation, yes it is somewhat surprising I know. My brother will be attending a conference and I need to use some of my Southwest Rapid Rewards credits, so I will be traveling for Orlando and Disney World to see Mickey and the gang shortly. I am looking forward to hanging out with my brother, his wife and Luke, as well as my mom and grandma who will also be traveling on my credits.

Another Weekend at the Lodge ...

Well it was another exciting time at the Bradley Lodge with family. Although I considered learning how to snowboard on Saturday, I have decided to hold off a few days and learn at Sierra at Tahoe on Friday right before the Consumed Winter Retreat with Bayside's "The Shore." Kara and Blake, however decided that Saturday was their day to learn how to ski and snowboard at Bear Valley. Both did very well and there are some pictures in the slide show of them and some shots of the mountain. We also were able to see Luke and everyone else at the Lodge and had a gathering of 12 for dinner (including Erin and Eric, founders of Wilderness Reconnection Experiences) Saturday night. It was a great weekend and I can't wait to have everyone together again!

A busy, yet successful week ...

It was a busy week at work and around my house, but everything got done. I started to write "Cappie" award entries for some of the projects I have worked on this year including the "Karen Gaffney 'Tahoe Challenge'" that drew national media attention with stories on the Today Show and CBS Evening News and the Partnership for Prescription Assistance San Diego Fire Relief Bus Tour where I helped build a strong partnership with American Red Cross staff in charge of disaster relief. Hopefully it will be like last year and I'll come away with a few awards, like the one I got for "Debbie's Dream" a campaign to increase the number of minority bone marrow donors. I also saw some of my hard work pay off when a feature story ran in the North County Times about an event with Linda Dano that I am helping to put together in San Diego and several other media outlets have shown interest in interviewing her on the day of the event, while one has confirmed.

I was busy outside of the office also, my parents and I went to Lodi to celebrate my Grandma's birthday on Saturday and watched the Super Bowl with friends and family on Sunday. On Monday I got my tires rotated for free and somehow spent $200 at Costco. I went back to Costco on Tuesday to return my iPod that broke and got a new one (so that was cool) and of course watched Super Tuesday Election Coverage and saw how wrong the polls ended up being, then on Wednesday I started to gather all of my tax documents and finally today I went up to The Shore at Bayside and of course I'm writing the blog. I almost forgot, I also found time to make it to the gym every day :-).

Now I just need to pack up my ski stuff and get ready to head up to the Bradley Lodge on Friday for some skiing at Bear Valley with all the family.

Busy Week ...

Well it has been a busy week ... it started last Friday with a weekend trip up to the Bradley Lodge, where we cleared over 3 1/2 feet of snow of the deck with my favorite toy (the snow blower). Other than that it was a pretty relaxing weekend, we even had a chance to meet some of the neighbors. The work week was busy too, I continued my new crazy schedule, working from home from about 6 to 9 am and then going to the office from 9 to 4 pm, the only problem is I don't have my favorite parking spot on the first floor anymore, now I'm on the 4th floor, which means more stairs. Then there were the normal activities, I went to the gym almost every day (which was a good thing since I ate at Brew it Up! and Pyramid Alehouse) and made it up to The Shore at Bayside and the not so normal stuff, the company my brother works for was featured on the TODAY SHOW as part of their "Mini Medical Miracle's" series.