Sheep Guarding Llama

This is our last weekend in the US.  We slept in a little this morning, everyone was tired.  Luciana came over to Dominica and my room and hopped into bed as soon as she was awake.

Luciana has been begging to get to go swimming.  She made me promise that I would take her swimming today.

So by late morning the Grice kids had been dropped off and Bennie and Joe were watching the four little kids out in the pool and shortly thereafter I went out to join them.  I went swimming for an hour or two myself, my first time in the pool for a long time.  I put on sunscreen on my head as I tend to burn often, even though I never seem to feel it.

I got some sun and some exercise.  Being in the pool was a nice change of pace.  It was in the high nineties today in Houston.

Dominica and Francesca were out shopping much of the day.  It was a very quiet day around the Tocco house.

This evening Brittany’s parents came over for a while and stayed for dinner.  We had grilled tilapia for dinner.

After dinner I took Madeline and Emily out to see the 9:30 showing of San Andreas which has just opened recently.  We had a good time, the movie was pretty good and it was interesting seeing a movie shot almost entirely in the city that I have been in for the past two weeks.

I woke up at four this morning which was a bit earlier than I wanted to but it does mean that I am ready for central time zone again.  I stayed in bed till four thirty but then got up.  I did a little work and posting before showering at six thirty.  At seven Jeff drove me down to San Francisco Airport which is visible from their neighbourhood so is not a far drive at all.  We were there by twenty after seven.

SFO is the easiest airport anywhere to deal with.  I got my bags checked in right away, Frontier seems to be reliably very easy to deal with, and I was right through security and had plenty of time to get a giant Cafe Americano and relax while I waited for my flight, which was on time.

I had a good flight from San Francisco to Houston.  It was smooth the whole way and I just spent the time reading the “W” book from Sue Grafton.  Only when we were coming over Houston that we suddenly hit a severe degree of turbulence which was explained once we were on the ground and found ourselves in a massive rain storm.

Francesca and Dominica picked me up in the Acadia and we went shopping at Old Navy for kids’ clothes and then stopped quickly at Fry’s to pick up the Logitech F710 wireless joypad that I have been wanting to get for a month.  While we were shopping I grabbed food at Which Wich, which was really good.

Everyone was waiting for us at the Grices’.  Liesl and Luciana piled onto my lap and everyone spent the evening watching a marathon of Disney’s “Lap Rats” which is a silly cable channel show, but it is cute and I had never seen it before.

Dominica, Francecsa and Emily went out for all that you can eat pizza.  I decided that that was a bad idea so stayed behind and watched the kids while they ate.  One they returned, they had figured out that it was a bad idea too.

Before going to bed tonight I hooked up the new joypad to my Mac to see how it would work.  It is really nice, I like it a lot.  I immediately tried playing Dust: An Elysian Tale and Liesl sat for a while and watched it.  She really enjoyed that.  She wants to try playing it, now.

This is it, my final day in San Francisco.  Tomorrow morning I am heading off early to get back to Texas and see my family.  And nine days from now we will be in Panama.  I woke up this morning at six thirty and was so excited that I fell right back asleep until after eight.

Sarah was out picking up breakfast from McDonald’s when I got up so breakfast arrived just after I got up.  Then we got ready and she drove Jeff and I into the office.  That’s much faster than taking the train in, but I miss my two miles of exercise which is probably pretty needed.

For lunch today the team went to Dos Piñas.  I got the amazing fish and chips burrito again.  This is my last chance to get one so I splurged.

This evening we left work around five, got to the house, then Doug came over.  He was announcing that was done with his current job in about a week and was kicking around ideas for the future.

The four of us went out to dinner at Red Lobster nearby.  Then we all called it an early night.  I packed up before going to bed and got into bed around eleven.

I get to see my family tomorrow!

My time in California is nearly over.  Today is Wednesday and tomorrow is my last full day here.  I fly back to Texas on Friday morning.  I will be in flight most of the day arriving at IAH in the middle of the afternoon and then needing to drive from IAH to League City.  Going to be a very long day.

Today is also the ten day countdown until we are heading out of the US again.  We fly down to Panama next weekend!  Hard to believe that it is coming up so soon.  A new country and a new region (Central America.)  We are pretty excited.  Although we are all tired of traveling as it is.  It feels like we have not stopped at all.  Since we left Spain it has been continuous movement from Spain to Norway, Norway to Utica, Utica back and forth to Rochester and Waverly, Utica to Houston, Houston to San Francisco and all of that in about one month.  Ugh.  And now San Francisco to Houston and Houston to Panama via Mexico.  We are going to be so happy being stationary in Panama for over a month.

Jeff was still in a lot of pain this morning so it was just me heading into the office.  That means Sarah dropping me off at the BART station and riding the train into the office with my two mile round trip walk.

I was pretty busy at work today.  I did a late lunch, on my own at the Dos Piñas taqueria because I just cannot resist their fish and chips burritos!!  This is my third one in a week (I got it on Monday as well.)  This is one of the best food items that I have ever discovered.

I worked until seven thirty then go the train back to San Bruno.  Sarah picked me up.  They had already eaten so she drove me to Taco Bell so that I could pick up a quick dinner.  Then back to the house where I ate and set up the laptop and worked for a bit.

Quiet night.  Basically caught up on SGL now.  Getting a few other things done.  Paid the bills for the month.

Really miss my girls.  It is hard to talk to them because I am so far behind in time.  I get up and get ready for work and by the time that I am home they are already in bed.  It is much easier when I am in the other direction and they are still awake after I am home from work.  I am awake nearly their entire night.

Jeff and I were getting ready to head into the office this morning when he hurt his back and had to stay home. So Sarah drove me to the BART station and I took the metro into the city and walked to the office from Sixteenth and Mission.  The walk, according to Google Maps, is one mile on the nose.  There is a bit of a hill in the middle of it, though, so you get to walk up and down in each direction.  So I am doing about two miles per day on my commute.

Sarah had grabbed McDonald’s for every one before taking me in so I did not need lunch in the office.  Josh heads out today.

We had a good day in the office.  Things were mostly quiet.  We were able to actually do planning and discuss things that we want to do as a team for a change.

I worked late again.   I got back to San Bruno around eight thirty.  Sarah picked me up and we went to Shari’s and picked up dinner.  I was good and got a grilled salmon salad.

I watched Jeff play The Witcher 3 in full 3D in his man cave tonight.  He is still in a lot of pain and has to stay in a good chair with a heating pad on his back.  The game is really incredible, I own the first two games in the series and am really looking forward to playing them now.  In full 3D it is really amazing.  Now I want to get a 3D gaming system as that really looks like a great way to do it.

I did not stay up late tonight, was rather tired.  Watched a little bit of Sarah playing Dragon Age: Inquisition, which is not in full 3D (it is just on a PlayStation 4) and so my eyes were able to take a bit more of it.  The 3D is really cool but the combination of the glasses, the really warm room and the very deep 3D with things making your eyes refocus continuously is a bit much for me for any length of time.