Doug's Sounding Board

After years of driving by the pretty lights in Los Gatos and trying to remember to look them up when we got home, we finally learned they are in Vasona Lake Park and that they are called Fantasy of Lights. Even better is that we actually made it there this year and can report that […]

We got a Christmas tree on Friday nght and got it set up. It didn’t even take long to assemble the cheap stand that the guy running the tree lot called “marriage enders.” Saturday all the decorations came out including the Christmas village and a tree that lights up. The batteries were corroded in so […]

Before Nicole and I went down to my parent’s house for the Thanksgiving weekend I weighed 199.6. My goal by the end of the weekend was just to not have crossed over 201 but I didn’t think it was a realistic goal. We arrived Wednesday night and had tri-tip and potato kugel. After 4 helpings […]

I was tired of my old dentist, Dr. Wickum. Mo told me about Dr. McClure. I didn’t call. After awhile I just stopped going. A few weeks ago I finally called and got to see Dr. McClure and I’m so happy now. He’s the first dentist I’ve actually liked! The hygenist seemed to take great […]

I had all of last week off. Originally my sister was going to be here for it but her work exploded into a nightmare that leaves them without a manager going into the holiday season. She’s at 60 hours for the week and on her 9th consecutive day. Not only doesn’t she get a fun […]

A few weekends ago I accompanied Nicole to Bay Meadows for a day at the races. I’m not big into horses or horse racing but it was fun. The notable events during the races were one horse I picked to win dumped the jockey at the gate and ran the other way about halfway around […]

Stephanie was in town touring for people she hasn’t seen in years and for Santa Cruz she decided a hike in Big Basin was the thing. Making the trek were Stephanie, Tammy, Brick, Brick’s friend Mike, Nicole, and myself. Mike led the way for about the first third and I’m not sure we ever were […]

Saturday was the day for visiting mo and Jeff. When we got to the hostipal we visited Jeff first since mo was asleep and seeing Jeff was amazing! After just one day he already had a healthy color in his face and he was happy and animated. I never expected such dramatic results. After Jeff […]

Yesterday Nicole and I went to the NorCal Strongman competition. This year it was held at the main beach in Santa Cruz. We arrived at around noon with the contest starting around 10AM so we missed the tire flipping and the log lifting but we still got to see the sand-bag carry, the dead lift, […]

For quite some time one of the plastic tabs that holds the battery in has been broken. The other tab was starting to break away so pretty much any jostling of the phone would disconnect the battery and turn off the phone. That was annoying for anyone who was trying to contact me. Being the […]