Melanie walked the whole 3.1 mile course without any trouble. When we were done, the line for the bus back to the off-site parking was so long that she, along Lauren and I, walked back to the car… and even ran some parts of it. This was another 1.5 miles! This turned the 5K into a 7.5K. The only thing that could have been better was if it wasn’t so hot that day. Unseasonable weather had the temps in the mid 90s, which is HOT for how close we were to the ocean.

Here are some photos from the day…

In 1971, my mother decided it would be fun to pick up and move the whole family to Australia. In March of that year she had heard some friends talking about the Australian consulate and some sort of program to bring workers to that country. By June, we were packed and heading to the airport. I was just barely 11 months old, so I do not recall any of this.

In 1973, we befriended some neighbors of ours, the Graveson family. Parents David and Anne had 3 kids…Two girls, Anita and Karin, who were close in age to my sister Stephanie, and brother Derek; and one boy, Erik, who was very close to my age. We spent lots of time hanging out together at the beach and having lots of fun. Both dads were very fun, and made sure that all of us kids were always entertained.

In 1977, my mom woke up one day and decided that she had enough of Aussie land, and said it was time to go back to New York. We made our way back, staying with other friends in the city until we settled in Port Jefferson, on Long Island. The parents kept in touch, and in 1979, when the Gravesons were relocating to another continent, they arranged to visit us when passing through New York.

The families made sure to get some beach time together and went out to Jones Beach on Long Island. Fun times on the beach included building huge pyramid sand castles, making hats out of beach towels, and singing/dancing to a song that David made up for us; we recall it being the “umkwa ka zinga” song.

The Graveson family have always been a huge part of our childhood memories of fun and happiness. And, after their visit to Long Island, our parents kept in touch ever since then via holiday cards and occasional phone calls. Us Bernhart kids would get updates from our parents at Christmas time on what their family was up to and where they were.

This past Christmas (2009), we learned that their father, David, had passed away earlier that year, after a long battle with cancer. Obviously, this really saddened us as we recalled once again, all of the great times we had with him and our families together. A few weeks after our own father passed away from a much shorter fight with cancer this May, my mother called their mother, Anne, to give her the news… and to talk about everything. My mom told me that she had a nice long call with Anne and they talked about all of the kids and grandkids. A few days after that call, I got a friend request on Facebook from Karin. Then a day later, another request from Anita. I then found Erik through their profile pages and sent him a friend request. And lastly, I found Anne there as well. My sister also hooked up with all of them. My brother, Derek, tried but didn’t like Facebook and removed his account. Oh well, his loss… we’ll have to keep him updated separately. Perhaps I can talk him into re-joining, and get my mom on there as well (good luck to me).

How great is the internet in this day and age? We can all share photos and messages with each other, and keep in touch much easier than if there were no such thing as the ‘net. Erik and I have sent some messages back and forth, catching up on what our own families have been up to. We’ve discovered that we both have some very similar interests and background. It’s been so great to see that they are all doing so well. It’s also been good for some self-healing in dealing with my father’s passing… to be reminded of how much fun it was having him as our father. I look forward to keeping in touch with them.

By the way… I sing the “umkwa ka zinga” song to Brody a lot. It gets his attention and he laughs and tries to sing along. Great for when he is fighting a diaper change!

An Endless Pool is like a treadmill for swimming. You simply swim against a constant current just as if you were running on a looped tread.

Links:
Brett’s site
Endless Pool

It was a fun night that we had with a couple of friends. Mikey is a die hard GLaSS fan like me, and his roommate, Brett, came with us and we all had a blast… despite some rude people we encountered late in the first set. Brett had seen GLaSS back about 10 years ago in Atlanta. He said he’s definitely changed since then, but he’s got the skills for sure.

I don’t remember all of the songs they played this time (last time I pretty much recalled all of them), and when I remembered to go ask for a set list, they were all out.

They opened up with “Hot Cookin’”, which is my favorite track off of their newest album, Lemonade. G looked quite dapper with his black velour suit. But, he kept it loose with the holes in the knees! Other surprises for me, that they didn’t play when we saw them in Anaheim, included… “Kick Drum”, “Gimme Some Lovin’”, “Honor And Harmony”, “Recipe”, and the crowd favorite “My Baby’s Got Sauce”.

Overall, it was a great show. The band was tight as ever and they kept the crowd going for almost 2 hours. In the middle of the first set, some idiots that thought they could just stroll out and just plop right in front of us. The floor was packed already, and these folks seemed like they were maybe just season pass holders for HoB or something… you know, they didn’t fit the bill for G. Love fans. We (forcefully) ushered them out of our way. The encore set had more room for us as people thinned out a bit. G came out with some acoustic numbers and then the band returned for a “Cold Beverage” and “Gin And Juice” medley.

We heard G Love will be recording Last Call with Carson Daily coming up on 2/13… and that Ben Harper is supposed to be playing with them. We’d love to go, but we’re taking some time off later that week for a trip out of town.

Lookin’ forward for their return to So. Cal. We’ll just have to keep our eyes open for gig listings.

The celebration peaked on Saturday night with a Mexican theme party at Stacy and Greg’s place. We had everything… sombreros, chicklets, refried beans, tamales, chicharonnes, carne asada, churros, flan (which I made)… oh yeah, and a midget, err, little-person. Good friends, good food, good drinks… and, like I say: Good Times!

Check out the slideshow on flickr….
[image above hosted on flickr.com]

A new DVD player they purchased was giving her greif. Since they bought it here in the US it’s zoned to play only region 1 movies. By the way, it is a CyberHome CH-DVD 300 and they got it for $30 after a $10 rebate. Not a bad deal at all… it’s nice and compact, and even has component video and coax digital audio outputs. A nice little player for the bedroom or an extra room.

Anyway, back to the dilemma. Being from France and such, she purchased DVDs that are region 2 (Europe) … and their new player won’t play them. They put the disc in the player and showed me the screen… “Wrong Region” it said. Their friend, who is more technically savvy than them, happened to be at Best Buy at the same time. He explained that a quick search on Google should provide them with the dezone instructions they need to enable their French movies to be played. Well, this is pretty much true. However, a “quick search on Google” to JB and Murie would not be so quick.

I ran back to our place (next door) and did my quick “dezone dvd cyberhome 300” search on Google. The 3rd hit down I found a link to a forum that had the instructions. Rediculously simple: Menu, 1, 9, arrow down to 0, enter. Voila! (that’s French, I told you about my High School teachings) I slapped in one of their region 2 DVDs and it played. Murie danced a funny little jig and clapped her hands. into the cupboard she went and pulled out a 1997 Comtes De Champagne Taittinger (pictured above). I was dumbfounded! As JB was explaining to me how wonderful this will be (he knows his stuff, he’s a sommelier at Orange Hill restaurant) … another bottle appears. It’s a Bourgueil from Val De Loire (that’s the Loire Valley for all you non-French speaking folk). She explained that it is the same type of wine we had with the dinner they made for us. Before she got the chance to go back into the cupboard for more, I stopped her and said that 2 were more than enough.

10 minutes of helping our neighbors netted us a nice bottle of Champagne, and a nice bottle of red wine. I wonder what I’ll get for showing them how to copy photos from a CDR to their hard drive? (that’s scheduled for Friday evening)

Now, which one will go best with the nachos I’m making for dinner tonight? (that is a joke) No need to worry, we’ll have the J. Lohr Merlot with dinner tonight.

[image above hosted on flickr.com]

But how many companies that go under can claim an ex-employees reunion where about 90 people show up?

Interplay is definitely a family… even if they don’t all work together anymore. Melanie was there for a few years and has many good friends that she still hangs with.

Photos here…

A busy Halloween weekend for us indeed.

We’ll start with Saturday (10/29). Melanie and I went with Adam and Krista to Halloween Night at Club Vegas on Saturday. Although there were some frightening costumes, I must say that the scariest thing of the night was Melanie’s “Incredible Hulk” drink that cost $16. You can pick your jaw up off the floor now.

Melanie agreed to be Mary Ann to my Gilligan because I wanted to do a couple thing. So, next year it’s her choice for the costume [she'll probably make me dress up as Little Bo Peep, or something]. Adam and Krista went all-out on their Punker costumes… complete with a real mohawk for Adam, and liberty spikes for Krista [which caused some issues getting into the car, good thing Adam has a sunroof].

Krista recommended a small costume shop in Orange for my Gilligan outfit… and this was the only place that had a shirt that actually looked like the real thing. It was a rental, but that’s fine since the bagged costume for Gilligan didn’t look as good as this shirt. So, that only left the hat… since I already had jeans that flared enough to pass for Gilligan’s pants. Melanie and I searched ALL day on Saturday, going to about a dozen different places looking for a floppy white hat. Then I recalled that Adam had such a hat. He brought it over and it was perfect. I would not have been Gilligan without their help.

Then on Sunday (10/30), we went grocery shopping at our local Albertson’s store. And let me tell you… the FREAKS came out a day early!

• This Harley-ridin’-Hell’s-Angel-lookin’ weirdo (beard and all) said to Melanie: “Your earrings are great by the way… are they heavy?”. And we kept running into him on all the other aisles, like he was following us.
• Then there was this guy that had to be 8 feet tall. I swear, he was huge, feet were at least 15 inches long.
• And, remember that Saturday Night Live skit with Eddie Murphy dressed up as a white guy? Well, I think we saw that guy… it had to be a wig. Pale skin, large eye-glasses, no eyebrows. The spitting image.
• And finally, last but not least: there was the drunk in line with a cheap bottle of wine, and (get this) a bleeding head wound. Yup, he was swerving so much just standing there, I thought he was going to fall over. We kept looking, thinking this patch of dark red on his grey hair was make-up for a party. Nope, it was authentic.

On Monday night, we went to Lauren’s to go trick-or-treating with her. This time, the drive was the scary part… it took us an hour and fifteen minutes to get there. According to the traffic report, Halloween night is the worst evening drive of the year. DUH!

Lauren dressed up as “Vampirella” with make-up and all. Her costume looked really good. She got loads of candy with her sisters.

Check out all the photos from the Halloween weekend here.

[edit] Melanie was right…. Gilligan’s Island was on in the 60s.

Nonetheless, it was a fun time and I got some very nice photos.

About 30 of us loaded onto a bus at Wayne’s and headed out to Primm Valley, NV. As you can see in the photos, the party started even before we got onto the bus … but, this doesn’t really surprize anyone who knows Wayne and all of his friends.

Although Melanie, April, Mike, Brian and I were all “beat-up from the feet-up” when we got home, we had a most excellent time partying with friends we haven’t seen in a while.

Happy Birthday Wayne!

Check out the photoset…

Mike’s also got some photos posted from the trip.

This year, we wanted to bring Lauren with us. We were lucky to have some friends that scored a good campsite on the beach side of the campground. This is no easy feat as you have to book 7 months in advance, and the spots go really fast. Melanie was only able to get an inland side spot from Sunday through Tuesday. Stacy’s mom (Bonnie) and brother (Jason), let us put up our tent at their spot from Friday through Sunday. This was great since Jason and his wife Nova have two girls, Tyler and Hanna. The three girls got along so well, especially Hannah and Lauren.

Lauren had a blast and I’m so glad that Melanie and I got to experience her first camping adventure with her. Everything from sleeping outside in a tent, to making s’mores at the campfire. It’s really priceless! We’ve already assured her that we’ll be camping again next year, and that we’ll do our best to be at or near Tyler and Hannah’s campsite.

Check out the photoset here…

Mel and I went to see Coldplay with our friends Mike and April this past Saturday night. We didn’t bring our camera since there were none allowed. But, then we hear them saying to everyone in line: “no professional cameras allowed”… which explains why so many people has point-and-shoots. Flickr’er charlespham seems to have quite an abundant set of photos from the show. Even if we did have our camera, nothing would have looked good from the lawn seats, so I wasn’t upset at that.

The opening act was Black Mountain, and they sounded like they were really influenced by Deep Purple-era rock. We didn’t pay much attention to them. During the break, Melanie needed to use the ladies room. 10 minutes later, so did I (we were the only ones drinking beer). When I got back, Melanie was not back yet… and soon after that, Coldplay came on. I was standing facing away from the stage, uphill, waiting for her to come walking through the crowd. After the 2nd song I went to go look for her. She went to the 2nd beer stand from the end, not the 2nd beer stand from the bathrooms. So, she was looking for us in the wrong area. I found her and we were able to enjoy the rest of the show together!

The band didn’t seem to have played a long set… but, that could have been because I was looking for Melanie the first 20 minutes. Chris Martin was very active, covering the entire stage over the course of their set. During the encore, he even ran up into the crowd and sang from atop the sound booth, interacting with the fans. They had this huge, wide jumbo-tron screen that was part of their set… behing the stage. A bit hard to see at times due to our location being so high up in the lawn section. They displayed various graphics and lights on this screen, but also used it to show close ups of the band. This gigantic display was big enough to show a close up of all four band members at once, so it was much better than your standard jumbo-tron screen at a concert.

One thing I thought was great… once their encore was doen, the band walked around the stage, waving and thanking the audience. Then the took a collective bow and left the stage. Something that I have not seen too often at a concert. Overall, a great show, but definitely want to get closer seats next time.

Adam approached me the previous Thursday evening and explained that he was going to be buying the ring that they both looked at just days before. He wanted to get it fast since he was sure that she would not expect anything so soon.

His plan involved me playing the part of “neighbor taking photos” that he wanted to take to send to some family out of state that they have not seen in a while. We devised a “secret code” that I would say while shooting that would give him the signal to do his thing. (The code was me saying “OK guys, let’s move right over… here”, and we decided on that roughly 5 minutes before it happened)

It was fun taking photos of the actual proposal. When Adam pulled out the box containing the ring, the two of them drifted into their own world where nothing around them mattered for that moment. In disbelief, Krista said “You’re doing this right now?”… her shock soon turned into tears of joy.

So, Melanie and I are extremely happy for them and were glad to join them in celebration that night. And, I’m glad that I was able to capture this moment for them.

Check out the photoset here…

Murie told us when we sat down for champagne that she wanted to have a French “toosh”. JB was quick to correct her pronounciation and told her “it’s touch…” “che… che” he made the sound that should be there in place of the “shhhh”. We all had a big laugh and it became the word for the night. On the topic of words, JB mentioned that it is strange for them to hear American couples call each other “honey”… he says… “that’s what I put on my toast… why would I call someone that?”. It’s fun to see the other perspective sometimes.

Two bottles of champagne, and a plate full of caviar-laden toastettes later… it was time to move into the dining room. So much good bread and, of course, French wine was available. For starters, we had a tomato salad with anchovies and olives. This was followed by the main course of roasted leg of lamb with potatoes au gratin (Murie’s special recipe… uses cream instead of milk). After stuffing our faces with this wonderful food and glasses upon glasses of wine, it was time for the cheese course. Three types of cheeses for us to choose from adorned a platter. My favorite was a sweet cheese that had walnuts in it.

More wine… and it’s time for dessert! Melanie and Krista made a white chocolate raspberry cheesecake that was so good, it was sure to make my pants button pop from eating it on top of all the other food. Murie insisted on an apertif… her specialty White Russian. Who am I to decline this? No one, that’s who.

Our heads hit our pillow at about midnight… and we were asleep within 17 seconds. The next morning… I was still full. I could not even think of eating breakfast (this is a big deal as I never skip breakfast). I forced myself to eat a Clif bar at 10AM and that was even difficult.

Good times, good times!