Today

Woke up early. Made breakfast (baccon, sliced apples, toast w/ butter and honey, coffee) for Cyndi and the little boy. As we were getting dressed he said "Go to beach?" Cyndi said "Why not?" I said, "Okay!" So, Cyndi went to work and me and the little boy went to the beach.

Getting to the beach at Santa Cruz from San Jose means taking Hwy 17 "over the hill". It is a pretty (and dangerous) drive through a redwood forest. Today it was foggy.

When we got to the beach it was too cold to go swimming. So we just walked around and played in the sand. There were some people playing volly ball. A couple of sail boats were anchored about 100 yards out from the breakers. I made a necklace out of dried kelp for the little boy. It took a while, but I think I finally got him to understand that his necklace has nothing to do with Saint Nicholas.

When it got too cold by the water we walked up to the boardwalk. All the rides were closed, but the arcade was open. At first I wasn't going to go in. (I don't like the noise of video ardades.) But then I remembered all the fun I had playing ski ball in that very arcade when I was a boy. I wondered if they still had the old machines. They didn't. They had brand new souped up ski ball machines!!! Well, I bought the little boy two games. He won six tickets and then traded them for a smiley face ring, 4 plastic centepedes, and 1 plastic scorpion. He was very happy. Oh, but you should have heard him scream with delight as he played the game. It was soooo excellent!

After ski ball we drove out on the municipal warf. (It is really a pier but they call it a warf. I don't know why.) We looked at sea lions lounging on the rafters of the warf. (I guess they thought it was too cold to be in the water, too.) The boy really enjoyed that. Then we bought some fried calimari and french fries from the resaurant at the end of the pier. We also fed some french bread to the gulls.

We got home about 1:30 in the afternoon. We took a nap together. Then I dropped the little boy off at my mom's house on the way to school.

Cyndi quit her job today. She is tired of recruiting and is going to be working for the company I work for. They are going to pay for her to go to school and get a real estate license. She is totally stoked. This is such a great thing for us. Right now she spends 10-11 hours per day at work PLUS 2 hours commuting. With her new job, she will be on call all the time, but generally, will have a 100% flexible schedule. Oh, and she found out that she is getting a huge bonus from her current employer.

We both had very good days.