Off to Hawaii

Aloha, Olivia is styling in First Class while Mom and Dad have to ride coach. Yes, that is a mai tai they are serving her. Apparently there is no legal drinking age in International Airspace. I guess cute goes a long way in fact all the way to the front of the plane. Daddy is lucky that he did not end up in cargo. Race Update - Jody & Skip are in 2nd and I am hoping "Criminal Mischief" is making a mistake on their southerly approach into Kanehoe. Go"Flash".

Jody & Skip leave for Hawaii on Flash

The soon-to-be bride & groom:



Joey Penrod & Jody





The Team aboard Flash:

The start:

You can follow the boat's progress at:
http://www.pacificcup.org/
there are several tracking tools... they are in Division F. boat name "Flash"

Faces of Liv

Liv is turning 4 months this week.

Here are some funny recent pictures...

Olivia the ghost !

This is one of Olivia's latest favorite games. Seriously we are not tormenting her so don't go calling social services. She really likes it and now her favorite toy is yes...... a burp cloth. Pretty much makes me concerned about how much Emily was drinking during her pregnancy.

new pics

Livvy loves trees! Especially if there's a breeze and she can watch the play of green leaves, blue sky, and golden sunlight.

Places Olivia Sits

We had a great day yesterday as a family! Jeff was home and not overloaded with work! We stayed home in the morning, went to the shop in the early afternoon and then took a nice walk over to the Alameda Golf Course for a late lunch & so Jeff could hit some balls at the driving range.

In the crib, watching her Buggy Mobile (ladybug, butterfly, etc...) She loves to talk and wave her feet at them... one of the top 10 cutest things she does this week!


We've brought Olivia to the table in her new high-chair/ booster seat. She joins me while I have my breakfast and sometimes at dinner (if she's not already in bed!) It's nice to have her there instead of on the floor... and getting all of us into the habit of family dinners! :)


Here she's helping me fold laundry! (actually, I had stepped away and Daddy thought this was a great joke!)


Livvy in her stroller as we ate lunch.


Jeff's got an appointment with a golf-pro this week... so he was firmly establishing his swing, before he goes to get it fixed... I guess that makes sense...?


It was a lovely day, and we feel very fortunate.

Funny side note: we were walking on the beach bike path and ran into one of our friend/customers who was out walking with his 3 month old baby (3 weeks younger than Olivia) and as we stopped and chatted another customer and his wife came up with their 3 month old baby (3 weeks older than Olivia). TOO FUNNY!! We totally live in baby-ville!!!

Where has Jeff been?

I have been traveling around the West coast working for Covanta Energy. My primary role is to perform boiler inspections and find any problems. There are 15 boilers in my region that I try to inspect twice a year. The challenge is not only in finding the need for repairs but to work with the management team to fix outside of the budget or plan for the next fiscal year. The plan is to reduce tube failures and unscheduled downtime by 20% this year. Tube failures cost about $50,000 per day not to mention the safety aspect of such a high energy release.


Some areas of the boilers are more accesible then others. They are all confined spaces though. I need to wear a respirator due to the fine ash everywhere. The picture below is one of the most challenging inspections due to the amount of ash on the tube surface. It is these tubes that if get thin enough can rupture and take the boiler down.


Most of the inspections are performed during the Fall and the Spring. Summer is peak power months and the plants have an incentive to run 100% during the summer. I will start traveling quite a bit again after Labor Day.