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Oakland Marathon

I ran the Oakland 1/2 Marathon yesterday, the inaugural Oakland running festival which had other running events like a relay, 5k, and of course the full marathon.

I had a lot of fun, the course is super fast and flat, folks were great/happy/excited, the running shirt was nice.  The support was awesome, no shortage of volunteers and spectators.  I was surprised by the number of people that were out and about cheering (moreso than the San Francisco marathon).

Ran into a few folks Derrick and Dr. Bean from IronTeam.  Ben was at the finish line volunteering.

More thoughts from other folks

The other day, I encountered eight (eight!) people who had come to town just for the marathon. All of them made a point of saying how surprised they were to discover what a beautiful city Oakland is. It was totally heartwarming.

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Dutch Guilder

A friend of mine was telling me that the prettiest money she ever saw was the Dutch guilder.  I had to look it up and I now have to agree.  Wouldn't be a bad collection to framed up on a wall somewhere.

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snowboarding 2010

Top of lift six, Cornice Express at Kirkwood.

What a great snow year in Tahoe!  We've been up a few times, wished we could have gone up more.  We've really only gone to Kirkwood which gets a ton of snow early in the season and it got dumped on this year, so we just kept going there.

Here, I'm all Burton-ed out.  Jacket is from the Shaun White collection.  Shirt is a snowboarding shirt from Burton too.  Snowboard pants are denim (goretex but it does still get cold and wet so good for warm days…but they do look cool).  Boots are Burton Hail.  The helmet is Giro, the bindings are Flow, the sunglasses are Oakley, the cap is from Rapha.

I'm more than happy to model Burton's 2011 collection next year…Call me :-)

[Apologies for the lack of writing, going back to writing now, hopefully a post a week if not more].

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smartphones, etc.

Palm Pre looks pretty good, probably will wait for the next version though.  Even with the iPhone 3GS, it's probably the right upgrade path from a Treo.  A lower price/plan, better battery life would have knocked the Palm Pre out of the ballpark, but still good.  Walt Mossberg's review

Other stuff I've been playing around with:

  • an unlocked G1 phone (w/ Android 1.5, fun to play with)
  • mobile wireless via Sprint (though heard AT&T's was 3x faster)

I check out the Netbooks every once in a while and I like the Dell Minis but there's so many out there now.  It's an interesting (and confusing) product segmentation — second laptop, ultralight for business travelers, kids.

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q2 '09 – general update

home

  • still on track for a bathroom remodel this Summer, uncertain on the details
  • no matter how we calculate solar panels, it makes no sense for us so evaluating led lights, attic insulation, solar attic fan
  • Rikyu updated their menu — it's our go to restaurant, *great* food
  • When it's out, will probably go with the Palm Pre to replace  a 2+ year old Treo for the boss lady (I still think *smart* phones are gadget overboard)
  • Couple of interesting pop culture links: Susan Boyle and YouTube symphony

work

travel

  • nothing planned yet for fun or for work, maybe a weekend side trip

volunteering

  • landscaping project at Santa Fe elementary school

books

training/events

  • finally starting marathon training for SF marathon in July
  • planning to struggle through the Marin Century in August
  • Berkeley pow wow May 2
  • Stanford pow wow 8 – 10
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bed linens, etc

At some point got caught up with finding nice bed linens.  Eventually settled on the following:

  • Thomas Lee sheet and pillow set — a flat sheet, fitted sheet, and two pillow cases.  They're 500 thread count cotton sheets which seems fine to me, neither arbitrarily too high or too low.  In any case, sheets are comfortable and reasonably priced.
  • Libeco Belgian linens — have a couple pillow cases and I like their linen sheets
  • Rough Linen — haven't gotten anything from here but local company and I like the simplicity of their products
  • Pacific Coast pillows and comforters — very comfortable, got the firm and 'luxury' down pillow

If you're going to spend 6 – 8 hours a night on your bed, might as well make it comfortable.  We're still sleeping on a $200 Serta mattress from 1999, it's still very comfortable — so it's not all about getting the most expensive, just what's comfortable.