London

All work and no (well, little) play pretty much sums up my trip to London. I wish I could send across the latest pictures of my tourist misadventures but barring an evening trip to the bar for a beer and some eats with colleagues after a long day at work, I'm here on a decidedly work-centered mission. In fact, I don't even have a camera at my disposal to take pictures with - not even my phone!

First, make no mistake that of all the cities in the world that I've been to, it should be no surprise that there is a distinct level of familiarity of being in the U.S.. A colleague joked how 'American' of it was of me to feel that London felt like another part of the U.S. -- so U.S.-centric! But come on, as if the England has no history of hegemony! For some, even visiting California inspires pulling out a passport . You get the point, being here is far from exotic.

Or maybe the above is just some long justification I'm making for myself given I'm not able to get out and enjoy the city as much : )

By way of summary, I arrived in the city after a nightmarish day of travel. The only good news was that the airlines did not lose my luggage. I suppose we could chalk it all up to the ash clouds -- seems to be the topic of choice around here next to London's lack of government just a few days ago and Gordon Brown's resignation.

To stay up and quickly get acclimated to the time change, I met up with my friend and colleague, Andrew, for dinner Monday evening and ate at a place called Henry's Bar here in Mayfair where I'm staying. Same deal on Tuesday and then last night my entire team had dinner and drinks. 

Ok, I'm running off - time for another day at the office...

Beach Bums

A quick, yet overdue update as it is a beautiful Sunday morning and we're rushing to get out the door!


Reflecting over the last few weekends and finding the words to summarize my blogging absence, I realize how much we've enjoy California's beaches and various coastal trails. In short, we're true beach bums. Between the bay views of our very own beloved neighborhood, to Crissy Field's beach, Baker Beach, China Beach, Mendocino Beach, Muir Beach and Stinson Beach - we've covered the waters near and far and have enjoyed them all!

Playing at Crissy Beach just minutes from our place.

There were 3 goldens in the water!! They all flocked to one another - so cute : )

View for our hike last weekend along the Muir Beach overlook.

South facing towards San Francisco.

Looking down towards the water. It's a long way down!

Z & S play on the beach.

Yesterday we hiked up the Muir Beach coastal trail.

Halfway up the hike.

At the top!

Sasa/ Zane lovin' at the top of our hike.

Stinson Beach. We had the beach to ourselves but it was super windy so we headed down to Muir beach (where it was also windy - lol)

Since my last post, we've celebrated Zane's birthday and Zane & Anna enjoyed a father-daughter date in the middle of the week to the California Academy of Sciences. Regrettably, I couldn't join them but enjoyed the blow-by-blow via Zane's camera phone photos. If only I could be as diligent as he with the camera phone and if he could only be as diligent with photo selection! My husband is the master of the ramdom shot!

Happy birthday, Z!!

Zane's camera-phone shot of Anna as they walk home from work/school.

The photo had an uncanny resemblance to my current FB profile shot so I had to do this for effect : ) Crazy, no?

I'm making great headway in my professional life and am pleased to report how much I really enjoy what I do. While, I'm a messy house keeper and part-time CFO of our home, I promised to tie this into my personal mission more tightly. And in the meantime continue to appreciate how willing Zane is to pick up the slack when I'm hot on my next report topic or presentation!

A snapshot of a portion of my white board in the office...lol

As the resident water analyst in my company I'm building my water 'queendom' (as a revered colleague puts it) and feel great in pioneering a way to bring visibility to this important human resource in the cleantech industry and the wider, and extremely diverse community of stakeholders. 

A nice little note of inspiration from a colleague sitting on my desk. Love it!

Also in the last couple of weeks, I've had the chance to catch up with my girlfriend Rachel during a Friday night 'girls night' with her and Anna in Pacific Heights. We're looking forward to hanging out more and Zane and I, like kids at a new school, look forward to building mutual friends in this new city! Working in SF gets me in front of people a lot more with plenty of coffee or lunch meetings and events--it's crazy to think how much time I spent in front of a computer before and how weird it was to have face-to-face meetings back in our MI office. It's been a healthy change of pace for all of us : )

Finally, Zane and I joined a local gym - Crunch. While I've managed to build a steady disdain for the 'gym rat' culture, I'm really happy we joined. What framework pushed me in this new direction? The lunch time or after work training during the week helps get me strong enough to do the fun outdoor activities during the weekends. And to be sure, there are so many fun things to do in SF, it's mind boggling. I'm looking forward to taking advantage to lunchtime runs to get outside and the various classes including, yoga, pilates, urban bootcamps and a kick your butt 'ride' (spin) class to name a few activities. The best part? Zane's corporate discount makes the membership super cheap : )

Looking ahead, May is going to be a busy but exciting month for us. We have a visit from Anna's godfather, Ekow, for one long weekend and Anna's Lolo over the memorial day weekend! We're all super excited! Next week, I'll be London during the work week but will be back in time for Ekow's visit.

Time to head out and enjoy another beautiful SF Sunday!!!!