Karl and Angela Rees

We’re feeling more at home in our second week here in San Jose. We’ve settled into comfortable schedules. Which is not to say that things at work and home are routine. Angela’s had a lot of variety at work thanks to an upcoming tax program she’s going to be in charge of. So she’s had to do a lot of communicating, research, and price forecasting. She also may be going on a training trip to Philadelphia at the end of this week—but the people in charge of scheduling the trip have been so scatterbrained she still doesn’t know if she’s going or not. Meanwhile, Karl’s still having a lot of fun. It was a little more challenging this week. On Monday they handed him a response to an Office Action that had to be submitted the next day, and he spent almost the whole day just trying to understand the underlying technology. But he got it done in time, and the supervising partner made very few changes. Karl also got his first paycheck, which is nice because now we can pay next month’s rent.

Monday’s become our workout day—we love the exercise equipment our apartment complex has. We also love going to the hot tub. Oh, and we went to visit some Rose Gardens that were pretty, but would have been prettier a month ago. Who knew there were so many types of roses out there?

Tuesday Angela did her first rush our driving in San Jose. She had to drop Karl off at work, because Karl had a work activity that evening and she needed the car. Angela was nervous about the drive, but she survived and isn’t so afraid of driving in San Jose now. It’s not nearly as bad as DC traffic. She even did some driving around later that afternoon (shopping, library, Enrichment). She’s reading a couple of John Grisham novels now. Enrichment was fun as well—a massage session, smoothies, facial, yoga, and so on. Karl meanwhile went “wine tasting” with a group from work. No, he didn’t actually taste the wine since he doesn’t drink (and the cool thing is nobody thought it was weird—his firm in D.C. wouldn’t have been the same about it). But he saw a number of wineries, got to be driven around the Santa Cruz mountains in a Limo, and saw a Model T Ford. He also tasted chocolates and mustard. It was fun. And they ate dinner in Los Gatos in probably the second most expensive restaurant he’s ever been in (about $50 a head). Ah, the perks of being a summer clerk at a law firm.

Wednesday we both played ultimate Frisbee. It’s a pretty fun group—they’re competitive enough that Karl likes playing, but not so competitive that they don’t mind teaching Angela how to play. And Angela played pretty well even.

Thursday we bought Angela a new phone and added her to Karl’s Sprint plan, which works out to be a little cheaper with better minutes, plus she can check email and look up directions and stuff on the phone. She likes her new phone, although she was a little sad that Karl’s dad and brother Bryan bought the same phone in the same color the next day. We also went shopping. We’ve found the prices at Safeway much more palatable.

Friday, we went for a little hike and drive in the Santa Cruz mountains. We got a very nice view of the valley at sunset, and also of a lot of very expensive homes. We also watched “The Terminal.” It was the last movie we recorded off of HBO after Comcast decided we didn’t have HBO in our plan after all. Oh well, we’re in California. Who needs free movies?

Saturday was our big adventure. We went down to San Francisco around noon without much of a plan really. We parked in San Bruno and took the Caltrain up to the city, which we figured would be cheaper than parking (not so, but only if you know where the right parking spots are—and we do now). We then caught the 47 bus up to Ghirardelli Square (which is not the fastest way, we’ll try the 10 if we’re in the same boat again), where we ate free chocolate. Then we headed over to Fisherman’s Wharf. Karl’s never actually been to San Francisco, but Angela has, and last time she rented tandem bikes and drove over the Golden Gate Bridge. So we decided to do that. It was expensive--$11/hr or $48 for the whole day. But when else are we ever going to ride a tandem bike?

We started from Pier 41 and then drove over the Golden Gate Bridge through Sausalito. We could have taken a ferry back, but we were having so much fun we decided to make a day of it and keep biking around to Tiburon. It was about 18 miles altogether. The bay was beautiful, and the weather great for riding a bike (although the wind made it a bit chilly going over the bridge and also when we stopped for dinner). We grabbed a bite at a Mexican restaurant on the waterfront at Tiburon. We only had time for appetizers, but they were actually pretty good—tamales and some sort of chicken/Mexican pizza type thing. Then the ferry took us back to Pier 41. At that time, it was about 8:15 and we need to get back to the station by 9:00. We looked at a map and thought for sure we could walk back in that time. It was sunset and the walk would be entirely along the Bay (including right by Pac-Bell Stadium, which Karl really wanted to see). Well, we underestimated the distance—about 3 miles altogether. So we had to speedwalk most of the way and then ran the last mile. But even though we were dead at the end, we made it on the train right as they were shutting the door. It was amazing timing, really. Maybe we should try out for Amazing Race.

Anyway, it’s been a fun week. We’re just kicking back and relaxing today. Happy Father’s Day!