Up To Snuff?

After numerous phone calls from every member of our family, Rob and I finally undertook the task of finding suitable lodging for our friends and family coming to our wedding this summer. We undertook this task with all seriousness, realizing that this could make or break the weekend for our incoming guests. We visited several establishments, speaking with the management at each place to discuss amenities, service, hospitality, rates, discounts, room service, breakfasts, what kind of shampoo they use and what coffee is provided in the rooms, understanding these are all very important matters to experienced travellers.

The Walnut Creek Motor Lodge proved to be an excellent option for us. Nina was very friendly and helpful at the front desk. She was able to answer all our questions and she gave us a key to see three different rooms, none of which were occupied at the time (a big improvement over our other hotel visits).

Below is an electronic copy of their brochure.
We hope you find it helpful.

Our first impression was good--nice color scheme, plenty of room and a new carpet! Rob tests out the bed to see if it's any good--it must be bouncy because the picture came out blurry.



Next we tested out the table where you may choose to write your wedding card to us--



You may want to make a call to confirm your wedding gift for us is en route--you can do this from the telephone in the room.



Every room is equipped with a coffee pot so you can enjoy a cup while you get ready for the wedding. The caffeine will help you groove on the dance floor.



Many rooms come with a toilet. Be sure to ask the front desk when you book your room if you want one of these included. They are particularly useful after using the coffee maker.



Only one room comes with this in the shower--and I've already booked it!! Sorry ladies!

Rob's Birthday

Rob turned 35 last Friday and began the celebration with a Chest X-Ray. Isn't that how most men celebrate their birthday? Look carefully and you can see his birthdate on the transparency. You can also see that Rob is full of air.


Rob's Chest X-Ray

Usually I like to throw Rob a big birthday party but with that other "Big Party" on the horizon, we decided to wait until next year. Not having any backup plans, I decided to take him out to the Red Tractor Cafe. We used to enjoy eating at Red Tractor when it was on College Avenue in Oakland but it's been well over a year since it moved to Dublin, CA which, though only 25 miles East, feels a little far to travel for "No-Meat Loaf", cooked carrots and garlic mashed potatoes.
Well, you can imagine Rob's delight when he realized where I was taking him for dinner. And can you now imagine my dismay when we realized they've dropped the "No-Meat Loaf" from the menu! I was crestfallen. Rob ended up eating scrambled eggs, carrots and mashed potatoes on his birthday (no gravy) and I had macaroni and cheese (lukewarm--could be why I look sooooo lovely in the photo).


Dinner at Red Tractor Cafe

Luckily, the disppointment didn't last long as he came home to open some prezzies.
Starsky and Hutch, Season 1, from me.
Seinfeld, Season 1&2 from my mom.
Curb Your Enthusiasm, Season 3, from I-boy.
And a Krups Sandwich Maker from Rob's mum and dad (this is going to get a lot of use on Saturday afternoons after playing footie!)

On Sunday, we went to see our friend Kevin's hockey game. COME ON YOU OWLS, WHOOOOO, WHOOOOOO!


Kevin Takes A Spill

And out for a pint afterwards with our friends--from L to R: Gretchen, Kevin, Chris, Tim and Kari (holding some Branston Pickle!)


Post Game Pint

Kid's Bake Sale

Kid's Bake Sale
Originally uploaded by Emmett.

Good things are happening today in my extended family. Drake, Emmett and Sally (nephews and niece) hosted a bake sale in Concord, New Hampshire to raise money for Tsunami relief. They spoke to the owners of the Puppy Love hot dog stand and received permission to set up a table in front of their stand. I think Drake made the baked goods and Emmett made all the graphics to set up the stand--is that right guys?
You can read more about it and find out what their total earnings were on Emmett's new blog--
Guy Of The Town

I want to congratulate the kids on their hard work and kindness--Aunt Irene will be so proud to have more activists in the family!

What's Beethoven's favourite fruit?

That's just weird
Originally uploaded by Rob.

Ba na na na!
That's Kari's best joke (oh dear)
Can you jolly well believe it? no not the joke, although I have heard Beethoven fancied a bit of yellow and black. So on Saturday we went to the post office to pick up a package and were quite literally gobsmacked as we pulled out 3 BananaGuards!! Rich and Jules (Rob's brother, and sister in law) had sent them to us for Christmas, one red, one yellow and a glow in the dark one, amazing, great minds really do think alike. We also got a Soccer AM DVD and another subbuteo book, brilliant. See if you can spot all the pressies in the photo (come on it's not exactly hard).
So thanks to Rich and Jules we will no longer open our bags at work and have sloppy bananas looking at us. Magic!

Christmas Mugs

Mugs
Originally uploaded by Kari.

Rob and I received a fantastic belated Christmas gift today from Andrea and her family--two mugs that feature Emmett's and Sally's original artwork. Emmett's, on the left, has a beautiful and vibrant tucan on it. Sally's, on the right, is a really nice drawing of a girl wearing a pink dress and a pretty bow in her hair. We love them both and will use them often since we drink tea like nobody's business over here.
Today was also a special day because Sally, tired of waiting for her lazy aunt to get her act together, confronted me and asked if she was going to be a flower girl in my wedding! Rob and I are delighted to announce that yes, she will indeed be one of our flower girls! (The other is yet to be announced--but it's not the fault of the lame aunt in this case.)

New Wheels

Rob's new bike
Originally uploaded by Kari.

Rob and I spent his last day of Christmas vacation shoping for a new bike after his was stolen from our garage a couple weeks ago. He ended up buying a nice Trek 7200 which is obviously very light (see photo).
Then we came home and watched a perfect rainy day film--Calendar Girls.
It's back to work tomorrow for us both. The kids at Rob's school will be wound up after sitting inside for three days because of the rain. And I'll be wound up due to everyone coming back to the office after the holiday break.
On top of all of this, we need to turn to on the wedding planning which we promised ourselves we'd do as soon as the new year was here. We're in for it now!

Shine jiliin mend hurgei!

Tugso and Greg
Originally uploaded by Kari.

Happy New Year!
We're at our friends, (And Ian's babysitters) Tugso and Greg's house in San Francisco,
Tugso is from Mongolia and assures us that the title says happy new year in Mongolian.
We're having a very relaxed night just slobbing and eating custard with forks.

Rob meets an American Idiot

Green day's bass player Mike Dirnt
Originally uploaded by Rob.

Hi all two of you out there, Rob here.
Had a Blog moment today while returning something at Best Buy,
Kari had said last night that she wanted to buy the new Greenday album, American Idiot (No not Kari, that's the name of the CD) Anyway, as I was thinking about buying the thing a man caught my eye(Not in that way). Blimey it's Mike Dirnt the bass player from Green day! I said to myself as I got a bit of a sweat on.
So over I went to chat with him and his daughter, although she didn't really want to join in as she was about 5 and very shy. I told him I was just about to buy his CD and asked if he could sign it, he replied "No biggie" which I think means yes. I continued to follow him around the store like a stalker and snapped a photo of him for the sake of the blog.
He was a very nice chap and even asked when I was going back to Australia, those punk rockers lose their hearing at a pretty early age you know.

Rob's hopes are dashed

bananaguard
Originally uploaded by karice.

It's a sad day in the Rice-Carey household. I was folding laundry in the bedroom when I heard Rob shout "NIGHTMARE"--I came rushing to his side to find out what could be the matter, when I saw it there on the computer monitor--
the Banana Box. Only it wasn't the Banana Box--it was the Banana Guard!
SOMEBODY HAS STOLEN ROB'S INVENTION!
It's true. His dreams of inventing the banana box have been dashed. Please, feel free to post your comments and letters of condolences to Rob here. And a heartfelt thanks to all of you who gave your support to Rob and encouraged him to pursue his dream of bringing the banana box to the world.

To help "prevent the tragedy of bruised bananas" please visit
Bananaguard.com

I-boy gets a haircut

Shaved poodle
Originally uploaded by karice.

Rob had a busy day today giving Ian a haircut. I was sure surprised to see Ian looking like an oversized rat when I came home from work. Tomorrow he's going to have his nails clipped and, worst of all for the poor poodle, have the hair pulled out from inside his ear. It's not easy being a poodle. Still, some days I wouldn't mind trading places.
You can see Ian's website at http://www.dogster.com/pet_page.php?i=33432

IFK Göteborg

IFK Göteborg
Originally uploaded by karice.

Here's a picture of Rob and me on Boxing Day wearing the new IFK Göteborg football jerseys that Dad and Ann bought us in Gothenburg.
Today was a perfect Sunday and Boxing Day. We got to play football and then watch football and Liverpool won 5-0. What more could we want (apart from Milan Baros converting his penalty kick)?

Visit http://velvetfogfc.blogspot.com to see more about our football team.

Hopefully all the Christmas presents we sent that didn't arrive will make it tomorrow--

Christmas Day

Ian's Prezzie
Originally uploaded by karice.

A nice and quiet Christmas Day, if you don't count the hours between 2am and 4am when the neighbors decided to have a big party. Rob ended up sleeping in the living room--but he assures me this had nothing to do with my eating brussel sprouts at Iain and Parmjeets Christmas Eve.
Ian went completly nuts Christmas morning--for a start, he really hates cameras and we took a picture of our tree before opening gifts so he was already wound up over that. Secondly, he absolutely LOVES opening presents so once we started that, he went out of control. We gave him his prezzie hoping it would capture his attention enough to allow us to open our gifts but it didn't work. In the end, we had to take him outside to run off some energy before we could finish opening our gifts.

Things we got for Christmas:
Wife Swap, The Best of Series 1&2 DVD
Live Aid 4-DVD set
IFK Goteborg football jerseys
Liverpool football socks
"The Art of the Incredibles" book
"Moneyball" book
New footie boots for Kari
I'm Alan Partridge Series 1&2 DVDs (Yes, I gave Rob season 2 for the second Christmas in a row. Don't ask.)
Liverpool Football Club Champions of Europe--The Epic Tale of All Four European Cup Victories 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1984
15 Storey High Series 1 DVD
Subbuteo book
Liverpool Football Club 2005 Calendar

My mom will be the first to tell you that we "never gave her a Christmas list so all we got is a boring check".

Carl's Place, LA

It's nearly midnight and I'm geeking out at Carl's place in LA while my dad sleeps in the "other room" (it is a studio apartment). Carl's messing around with over 4,000 new Garageband Loops and, well, you know what I'm doing--creating a blog. How cool is that?
Dad and I have both been meaning to visit Carl for a long time and finally made it happen. He's showing us a great time so far taking us out for some good food and to the beach. The best part was going to this t-shirt shop on Vermont last night and seeing, you won't believe this, the small Velvet Fog FC patch for sale. I'm not kidding around. I'm going to try and go back tomorrow and see if I can get a picture of it using the camera my dad just gave me for my 2004/2005 birthdays. So much to do!