Zoe at Franck's

Arrived in Grrrrrenoble!

Franck very kindly picked us up -- It would have been two trips without his help, I think. The plane flight was kind of painful, with Zoe in full mommy-cling mode. None of us got any sleep, there were no LCDs in the seat backs, and I dropped a cup of tomato juice on the ground, which fired an impressive spatter of juice all over my pants. As the cabin got brighter in the sunlight, I kept noticing new areas where the tomato juice had reached, including all the way up to the little air nozzley things! Impressive range on that juice.

Leaving SFO was very sad -- we'll all miss the parents a lot.

Setting off for france today

Last minute packing, etc etc!

ride with Howard

Rode up tunnel and grizzly with Howard and his new Pinarello Dogma DI2. I had good legs at the end, so I rode up Marin (had to put a foot down after almost falling over on one of the steep sections).

Here are power, cadence and speed for the Marin section

bike packing

I found aTeam Bike case on craigslist; here is my attempt to pack my beloved Merckx into it in a manner that will prevent the throwers from destroying it.

cow poo candy?

last sushi for a while

@kirala!

Last day at work

I can't believe we're moving to France!! Are we crazy?

today's ride

felt ok, but got passed by all manner of people -- even an old guy with down tube shifters.

breakfast

with my AM work buddies at the cable car cafe in south san. You always discover the cool places when you're about to leave!

Zoe's Last Day in Day Care

I had been dreading this day for a while, because Zoe loves her day care, and she has been so well cared for. I picked her up for the last time, emptying out her little cubby and saying goodbye to the teachers. It's embarrassing, but I got a little teary. I guess it was hard knowing that she had no understanding of the finality of what was going on, and that she wouldn't be feeding the fish or pounding her fists on the table for more food tomorrow.

Mac Factory in the news

Today we went to our old home: the Mac Factory in East Oakland. We were there to help unload some trash from Kenji's truck. On the way in, I noticed that the security gate had been destroyed, and several cars in the lot had been smashed into each other. It looked like something big or fast had done it, as the cars had obviously been parked, and you could see the tire skid marks for six feet on one of the cars. My mom called the supe to ask him what hd happened, and it turns out that early in the morning a big rig had somehow made it into the Mac Factory lot and crashed into someones car. The details that follow are unclear, but it looks like the guy whose car had been damaged called the police, the truck driver then went berserk and destroyed five other cars, some electrical wiring conduit and the gate before fleeing onto 880. A little later, hew was pulled over by the CHP and he opened fire on one of the officers with a shotgun. Here's the sfgate report:

>

Big rig driver arrested in Oakland police shooting case

Henry K. Lee, Chronicle Staff Writer

Sunday, August 30, 2009

(08-30) 17:49 PDT OAKLAND -- The driver of a big rig truck was arrested today after he shot and wounded an Oakland police officer on Interstate 880, fled the scene and then crashed, police said.

The suspect, a 41-year-old Alameda man whose name wasn't released, had been pulled over by two officers about 3:45 a.m. on northbound Interstate 880 near the 66th Avenue off-ramp because he appeared to be driving erratically, said Officer Jeff Thomason, Oakland police spokesman.

The driver came out of the truck and opened fire with a shotgun, injuring one of the officers in the foot, Thomason said. The officer, whose name wasn't disclosed, was treated and released.

Police returned fire, but the man got back into the truck and continued north on I-880 before crashing and flipping over between High Street and 29th Avenue, Thomason said. He ran from the truck but was arrested near 35th Avenue and East 9th Street at 11:25 a.m.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2009/08/30/BAR919G46A.DTL#ixzz0PivxbS9P

Subie Sold

There is not an adequately large unhappy face icon for how I feel about this. The Outback XT has been such a fantastic car, and there is no way we will be able to afford a car like it in France (cars are way more expensive there). I would put together a nostalgic photo montage if I had any time

going away party

icies!

Zoe's new favorite food

stuff

Our container is checked into the port of Oakland, due in France in late september! ~7500 pounds of stuff!

Alta .. for the last time in a while?

We drove up to Alta with Christa today, stopping at Awful Annie's as usual. A Ferrari Testarossa was in the lot, which a waiter was admiring. He told me that the cobra that we saw a few weeks ago belonged to the same guy and that the Testarossa only had 30k miles on it.

packing

Eve of shipping

getting all the stuff together. Hoping nothing critical ends up on a boat for 6-8 weeks.