A Much Needed Vacation

Work was tough this past week - you know how it can be when you're going to be out for the next week. Originally, we had taken this week off to head out to California for a family visit. The kids and Stacy are off - and I was due for a vacation. But instead, we're gonna stick around the house - or at least Washington.

But since work was so busy, there was little time to blog... So here's a recap of a week's events and a sneak peek at the week ahead.

Three words: Cherry Blossom Festival. Tis the season in Washington and tourism has kicked off with a bang. Stacy's been wanting to get out there. I'm still not quite sure what the CB's are going to do to my allergies. But I should pop a Claritin and head on out there with her.


Ceci and Oltac are parents again. Tigin was a whopper of a kid, came out practically holding his own bottle. Haha. Sorry, kid... We took a ride out to NOVA on Saturday to see the baby. It was nice but quick visit. It's nice to have some resemblance of family out here on the east. We worked with Cecilia back in San Jose and then reconnected with them out here (following a brief stint of theirs back in Seattle.)

I started a podcast at work. I know I rarely talk about work on this blog but I thought it would be kind of cool to share the latest thing I'm up to. Being the harsh critic that I am, I think it's kind of too interviewish. We're calling it a beta because we're looking for the groove still. We gotta talk it up. We gotta have a good time with it. Maybe we should take callers...? Nahhh.

Stacy had a birthday. I wont tell you how old she is, other than to say that we share an age for two weeks. I'll jump ahead again on the 15th. She asked for a bike; so I got her a bike. We kinda discovered that our neighborhood... yeah, it's kinda hilly. She and Alex went for a ride yesterday and she came back talking about all the little inclines. I guess my truck really doesn't notice them... Then they cleaned up and headed off to the mall. And lucky for us, they didn't want us tagging along. So me and Zack and Nick stayed home. While she was out, the florist delivered a spring bouquet to the house. Very nice... We ended the night with dinner. TGI Fridays is kind of our place because that's where they have the bomb Jack Daniels steaks. The JD sauce is jammin'

A quick shout to my pal Joanna and her hubby Fritz, who are spending some time in Europe. Joanna sits on the NAHJ board with me. She works for the New York Times community newspapers and was recently sharing with other board members how she will be doing more "multimedia journalism," basically more of the videos and podcasts and blogs and all of the type of stuff that newspapers are trying right now. Now, she's blogging the trip - and it's great reading. She talks to you like you know all the players and you're immediately drawn into the vacation like you were there...

Georgetown beat North Carolina and landed a spot Final Four. But then they lost last night to Ohio State. So much for M Street lighting up in celebration tomorrow night.

April Fools Day is always such a big adventure. We raised the bar last year when me and the kids went to Nick's Safeway store where he worked at the time - and moved his car. Yup, I took the spare key and moved it to the other side of the parking lot and then we parked a couple of rows over and cracked up as a look of panic took over when he realized that his car was missing. Hilarious. This year, we all tried to outdo each other... I woke up to the Stacy and Nick - of all people - trying to toilet paper me to the bed, wrapping it under and over --- until I rolled over and broke it. Let's see: Stacy started when she put packing tape in front of Nick's door right at eye level and saran wrap at the bottom. When he opened the door in the morning, his face hit the tape and he tripped over the Saran Warp. The kids put Pam (you're know, the stuff you spray in the pan instead of using oil) on the doorknobs. There was peanut butter in Stacy's sandals. Stacy taped over the bathroom faucet so when I turned on the water to brush my teeth, the water shot all over my shirt (that was actually kind of funny.) The kids messed with our coffee by squeezing lemon juice into the carafe (ruined the whole pot), putting salt into the sugar bowl and - get this... they left only enough milk in the fridge for coffee and Nick poured Vodka in it. I tested the sugar and realized it was salt but Stacy didn't. But I didn't check the milk. WOW!!! Good morning!! Finally, we left Nick paranoid when we went to his work and took a picture in front of his car. We were just gonna send it to his phone when we heard "Hey! What did you guys do to my car?" We jumped back in my truck to leave. He was convinced we did something - and we wanted him to think so. It was driving him crazy trying to find when we did. That was the plan.

I'll be around this week but I got stuff to do around the house and really want to take 1-2 day trips with the kids. Don't know where we're heading yet - but no matter where, it should be fun. We've talked about Jamestown - where the 400th Anniversary is underway. Maybe colonial Williamsburg. Maybe up to Hershey, PA again or even a day in Philadelphia. I'm even thinking of a train ride up to NYC. It's a great trip, just the train itself.

To the family and friends in California, we'll see in June. This week's vacation is for the immediate family in Maryland...