Sauly's Raleigh

Saul got his Raleigh Rowdy mountain bike yesterday and he's already shifting and using the hand brakes. Grandpa got a mountain bike at the flea market last weekend, so we should be hitting the trails soon!

Unreleased Jimmy Page Guitar Riff To Be Retrieved From Secret Vault To Save Rock And Roll

Go Bananas

The boys and I went bananas today. The warehouse full of inflatable bounce houses and slides blinded me with its flourescent lights and colorful rubber toys,while the boys enjoyed flouncing around and pummeling eachother with giant purple logs. I even risked my own life by joining them in a game of King of the Mountain. It was fun.

Tour de California

Seth and I went to the Port of Stockton to watch the Tour de California's third stage begin. We were both very inspired, so we went to New Melones to mountain bike. Seth did so well! I was afraid that he'd fall and not like it, but he was a little mountain goat. Here are the pics.

Downhill !

Sierra, Seth and Saul got to swoop this afternoon at the levee. Tomorrow, we're going to check out the Tour de California from Downtown Stockton where the next stage of the race begins. Should be cool!

Fun With The Cousins

Seth, Saul, Sierra, Jenna, and I went on a little field trip to California Caverns today. The weather was great, so we hiked around New Melones Reservoir on the mountain bike trail afterward. This spot is now about my favorite for mountain biking and hiking, especially this time of year. We should go camping there in the spring. I took quite a few pictures. These are a couple of the best ones. Here is one of me biking there on Saturday.

Super Bowl Sabbath

Last night's Vague Jam honored the weekend's main event, the Super Bowl. Allan came up with Super Bowl Sabbath, and it was the first time he participated with us. He thoroughly rocked, and easily fit in to the group which consisted of John Stoker, Jim Ricks, Kelly Foley, Kevin Duncan, Duncan Atkinson, and myself. Instead of watching the game this afternoon, I brought my classroom into the 21st century by hooking up a laptop to a projector, then rode my road bike out in the country. However, I did record the halftime show starring his highness...Party on!

Tres Hambres

Pat, Kelly and I recorded a couple of discs worth of vagueness on Saturday night. Since it was just the three of us, we called it Tres Hambres with a nod to ZZ Top. Here is the cd cover for it.

Hiking up on Diablo

Sherri, the boys, and I went for a little hike up on Mt. Diablo on Saturday. We went down the Trail Through Time from Rock City, checked out the wind caves, then drove to the observatory at the tippy top to look at the bay and the valley. It was 33 degrees at the top, and very clear. The boys didn't want to leave. They can't wait to go hiking again. I went mountain biking around Hogan Lake yesterday, and that would be a great place to hike with the boys. The bike trail was perfect for me, but I think Seth would freak out being close to the edge and having to maneuver around hairpin turns and boulders. It was scary to imagine him flying down some of the steep parts if he were to be with me on that one. As for walking it, though, that would be very doable. Maybe in May we'll go camp there.

Toadstool Theatre Video

T Vo D Vo T

Here is a cover for the Oy Vague cd, T VO D VO T. I stole the Dolby logo off the website, but I know a guy who works there so it's ok, right Pat?

Post Op Vague

Saul Playing the Drums

New Year, New Belly Button

I finally got my umbilical hernia repaired. My new bellybutton is healing nicely, and I'm kicking the Vicodin without too many withdrawal symptoms. The boys and Sherri are playing with their new toys. I uploaded a drum solo by Saul to You Tube, so look for it soon. Happy New Year!

Biking at the Levee with Saul

Saul and I rode our bikes to the levee today. Saul is fearless! He did crash once, but he recovered, then we went to 31 Flavors where he got a Wild n Reckless clown cone. It was a real cool time!

You Tube and My Space

My friend, Connie, sent me an email about some company suing people $150,000 for copyright infringement for having You Tube Videos and My Space videos on their sites, so I took all of those links off this blog. You can still go to You Tube to see lots of cool videos, but I don't have that kind of cash. I doubt if the teeny boppers who post Gwen Stefani and J-Zee videos have that kind of cash either, and I bet those "artists" will eventually be sorry for suing over having their videos be promoted for free by actual fans of their tripe when their videos are no longer in heavy rotation on the MTV, but that's their stupid problem. Here is the article for your perusal. NEW YORK (Reuters) - Universal Music Group, the world's largest music company, said on Friday it filed a lawsuit against popular social networking site MySpace for infringing copyrights of thousands of its artists' works. Universal, owned by French media giant Vivendi (VIV.PA), filed the suit at the U.S. District Court Central District of California, Western Division. The lawsuit accuses MySpace of allowing users to upload videos illegally and taking part in the infringement by re-formatting the videos to be played back or sent to others. It follows several months of talks on music rights with News Corp.'s (NYSE:NWS - news) MySpace, which broke down late on Thursday, a source familiar with the discussions said. It claims thousands of links to music from Universal's biggest artists, including Jay-Z and Gwen Stefani, are widely available on MySpace, even ahead of their release to music stores. It estimated maximum statutory damages for each copyrighted work at $150,000. Earlier on Friday, MySpace unveiled an enhanced copyright protection tool to make it easier for content owners to remove unauthorized material. MySpace later described Universal's action as "meritless litigation," saying in a statement its procedures for removing illegal downloads lived up to laws protecting digital rights. Protecting copyrighted material is one of the biggest challenges facing entertainment companies as they try to turn a profit off the growth of digital media outlets. Music and TV companies have been in dispute with sites like MySpace and YouTube in the last year because of the ease with which their millions of users can upload and share songs and videos without having to pay. "Businesses that seek to trade off on our content, and the hard work of our artists and songwriters, shouldn't be free to do so without permission and without fairly compensating the content creators," Universal Music said in a statement. YOUTUBE DEAL AVERTS LAWSUIT In the case of YouTube, now owned by Google Inc. (Nasdaq:GOOG - news), Universal Music reached a licensing agreement to give the site and its users access to thousands of music videos. Other entertainment companies have been reluctant to take legal action against the likes of YouTube and MySpace because of the potential promotional exposure such sites may give to their artists. MySpace says it has more than 130 million users. News of Universal's suit comes a day after News Corp. said Ross Levinsohn, the executive who led the $580-million acquisition of MySpace, had resigned from the company. Universal Music Chief Executive Doug Morris had publicly hinted that his company could take legal action against MySpace and YouTube back in September. He said at the time that the two sites combined owed his company "tens of millions of dollars." But the threat of legal action seemed less likely after Universal and other major record companies including Warner Music Group (NYSE:WMG - news) and Sony BMG Music signed separate music video agreements with YouTube.

Annual Mountain Bike Ride :Chabot Lake

Kevin, Pat and I went on a 16 mile mountain bike ride on November 5. It was very strenuous to me, and I walked up the steepest parts of it, but the downhills were very fun. I didn't fall this time, which was good. I hope to make more trips like this before next November! Pat is a monster.

Happy Thanksgiving!

I can hardly wait until next week, since I have the entire week off from work. I am very thankful for that fact. Saul and Sherri made a really cool looking turkey out of beads for his class. Here is a picture of it.

Easy Halloween Costumes

Here are a couple of no brainer costumes for me and Seth. I think we look pretty darn cool as John and George.

Happy Halloween!

I almost forgot about our jack o' lanterns. Here they are. Saul's looks the best, like a pumpkin should. Seth and I got ambitious, trying to do compicated images using these fancy carving tools we got. Mine is supposed to be a grim reaper, and Seth's is a skull. They look pretty good, but they took a long time, and it is hard to tell what they are in these pictures. Oh well. It was fun anyway.