casacaudill

birthday vacation booked: big island

Yup, it's that time of year again - time for me to obsess about where we'll go for my birthday.  A couple of years ago we used some reward points to get airfare (and upgraded to first class!) to Oahu and then booked a room through Hotwire for an utterly fabulous trip. 

Then last year we used more reward points to get half of our airfare and used our timeshare in Kauai.  We had been to Kauai in 2004 and didn't have a good time because it rained and rained and then rained some more.  Oh, and the timeshare we traded into with RCI was a shit hole.  The Kauai Coast Resort at the Beachboy in Kapaa though is beautiful and it made for a much more pleasant trip.

And now ... I've booked our condo in the Big Island!  We'll be staying for 4 nights at the Holua Resort at Mauna Loa Village (it's again part of our timeshare group and thankfully has excellent reviews on Trip Adivsor). 

In 2002, we honeymooned at what is now the Fairmont Orchid and had a nice, relaxing 4 days there after our wedding in Maui at the Fairmont Kea Lani. We drove to Hilo and took a helicopter tour of the volcano (which was only slightly erupting at the time), we laid by the pool for a day, went kayaking at Captain Cook's monument where we were supposed to have seen dolphins but instead were harrassed by sea urchins (and thus began my terror of them). It'll be nice to get back to the Big Island and see how it's changed (if at all) and see some of the sights we didn't get a chance to visit before.  I think though we'll stay away from Mauna Kea if my physical reaction to Haleakala was any indication of my ability to tolerate giant Hawaiian volcanoes.

So now we just need to find flights and a car and we're all set!  Naturally, I'm giddy.

Under the weather

I started feeling tired & run down on Friday. Saturday, while sitting at the hair salon (more on that later) I was sleepy and feeling congested. Sunday I was full on sick - red sore throat, coughing, congestion, aches & pains ... The whole nine yards. Unfortunately today I'm not any better - I've now added sneezing, headache & dizziness to my long list of ailments. I hate being sick but it seems ever since I was born that is my lot in life. I was already afflicted with a fever blister last week; I'm waiting for another one to show up now which will be very unwelcome. Insult to injury and all that.

#rsac

(Twitter users will understand the title; others ... sorry.)

It's been quiet around here because I've spent the last several weeks gearing up for and being at the world's largest information security conference & exposition - RSA Conference.  I have mentioned it on this blog only a couple of times, but I am an Account Manager for a tech/consumer PR firm in San Francisco and one of my accounts is the Conference.

In the months and weeks leading up to the show my team (and what a team they are!) gets press interested in attending, we secure coverage for the Conference, we work with exhibitors and platinum sponsors and we liaison with the event management team to make sure the Conference will run smoothly come show time.  Needless to say, my life has been consumed with pulling off a great Conference.  This was my first year being on the PR team for the event, but it's not - as my teammate Stephanie would say - my first time at the rodeo.  I've been doing PR for information security companies almost the entirety of my career so I've been at the Conference with exhibiting companies and speakers before, coordinating press meetings and driving press to their booths.  But to be on the other side and see how it all comes together ... well, I have to admit ... that's a whole other level of insanity. Both Stephanie and I were new to the core team this year, and we relied on my friend and colleague Alex to fill in all the ??? we had, and he did an awesome job of it.  I can't wait to see what the three of us are able to pull off next year.

Anyone who knows me knows that I don't do well with early start times so you can imagine how hard it was for me when two of the three days I was up before dawn and walking over to Moscone from my hotel (yes, I lived in SF at the Marriott for a week) while the birds were still waking up.  The city at 5:45 a.m. is an interesting place - so clean, so quiet, so serene.  Thankfully, the morning I had to work at 6am I was joined by another partner in crime, Jen of none other than The Jennifer Beautiful Me Show. If anyone could keep me awake, smiling and pleasant at that time of day it's her.

All in all it was a wonderful event and from my point of view, the most successful RSA Conference to date.  Of course I'm just a bit biased, but coverage in Fortune, Business Week (multiple times) and BBC leading up to the show is a hard act to follow.  I know this team will do even bigger and greater things next year.

In the meantime, I leave you with this photo of my team with the closing keynote speakers - MYTHBUSTERS!

And no, we didn't call each other in the morning to color coordinate.  We're just cool like that.

Thanks for the great and busy times Cathy, Alex and Steph!  Here's to 2010. 

Oh, and if you are interested and have 2:34 to spare, I recommend you check out this highlight video (and keep an eye out for Alan who was at the Conference on Tuesday). 

#rsac signing off.

starbucks

Everyday at around the same time I order the exact same thing from the exact same Starbucks - triple grande non-fat white mocha with whip. And most times, I'm ordering it from one of the same three people.  And yet ... they can't remember who I am or what my order is.  I see other people come in that I recognize as also being regulars and it's all, "hey joe! lemme get you that grande no foam macchiato" and "hey Susie, you want 2 or 3 shots in your cappucino?"  Me?  I have to repeat my order each and every time.  "Your name?" they ask, everytime.  And of course, I'm always Becky.  And yet, I'm not.  Sometimes they call me Wendy, or Mindy.  Today I was Cindy. 

spring has sprung

The weather here in the Bay Area has been a tad confused.  A couple of weekends ago it was just lovely - sunny with temps in the mid-to-high 60s.  Then just days after that, it was cold and rainy.  This weekend was another glorious weekend and the weather was just perfect.

Since we're a bunch of heathens that don't celebrate religious holidays, we didn't have any grand plans for Easter.  Rather, we puttered around the house and then went for a hike in Tilden Park.  This hike was much more successful than our last Tilden attempt where we got off the trail and had to have my father in law come pick us up miles away from where we parked our car.

There were HUNDREDS of people at Tilden which I guess isn't surprising since it was gorgeous outside.  But I thought people did Easter egg hunting at their houses, not at a public park?  Whatever the case, there was very little parking to be found.  We kept going from lot to lot, finding ourselves quite a distance away from our original trail.  In the end, we parked in a new spot that we hadn't seen before which had us at the starting point for a 3.5 mile trail.  And what do you know, they had maps too!  The first 3/4 miles of the hike was absolutely gorgeous - think redwoods and ferns and other evergreens lining a creek bed.  The second half of the hike was up hill and I do not like hiking up hill.  I can't even tell you if it was pretty or not because I was in a mood.  The final part of the hike was a gradual slope down hill, with grassy covered slopes filled with purple wildflowers.  There was no shade, but there was a breeze so it was really very pleasant.  Unfortunately, I didn't bring my camera, so you'll just have to take my word for it.

I do, however, have pictures of our hike a couple of weekends ago in Jaquin Miller Park.  Yes, this is Oakland - I promise.

made of happy

For anyone that loves (1) dancing, (2) The Sound of Music or (3) Flash mobs, you cannot watch this video and not smile.  I dare you not to smile.

worth 1000 words

This was our back yard late last week.

And this is was our back yard on Friday after the gardener Dennis and his men came to save us.

Last year after the spring rains we attempted to rid our yard of the massive weeds that seemingly grow overnight and it took every weekend for nearly two months.  We literally had 5.5 foot tall dandelions taking over last year.  This year they weren't quite that tall, but as you can see from the "before" picture, we weren't without our problems.  Thankfully it took Dennis and his team just a couple of hours to finish so we could start planting our vegetable garden this year.  Last year we had to wait until May which meant we couldn't really enjoy the fruits (and veggies, hardy har) of our labor until mid to late September.  This year we're planting early!

Today we planted:
- 3 varieties of tomato (Early Girl, Beefsteak and Better Boy)
- Japanese eggplant
- Arugula
- Swiss chard (I think it's mislabeled and is really rainbow chard)
- Pickling cucumbers
- Zucchini
- Basil

We also plan on planting carrots but we ran out of energy today to get the seeds in the ground.  And is it just me or is no one selling Brandywine or Purple Cherokee heirloom tomatoes ANYWHERE.  It's like they're a figment of my imagination.

Wild life?

Alan claims to have seen a couple walking their pet goat down the street last night. At first he thought it might have been a deer. Yeah.