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Silicon Valley visit

I went to the Silicon valley last week and had a great time! Got to see my friend Shivani and Noveli.

I jumped on the trampolin and tried to catch the oranges from the tree.

I went to Stanford (ok, I went to Stanford university cafe, but that’s close enough), read some books, played with my DS and just had a blast catching up with my friends.

We passed through Gilroy, the Garlic capital of the world, and sure enough, when we were driving there was such a strong smell of garlic in the air. The only time I like to eat garlic is when it is on my garlic bread; otherwise I don’t like it that much.

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Carefully opening all my Booster Packs at Pokemon Pre-release Party

So the new Great Encounter Pokemon Deck is coming out on 13th February.

My dad found out that there was going to be a pre-release party on 2nd February in Santa Barbara. Santa Barbara is not too far from us; about 90 miles, and I heard it was a great little town on the beach. So we decided to make a family outing out of it.

I was so excited to go to the Pokemon pre-release party! I have never been to one before and I had heard you get some great cards at the pre-release.

We got there by 1.00 and got settled in. Kiim Cary of Pokegym fame was the organizer. We met him at the Pasadena city championship event and have been exchanging emails with him. He was a judge at the World Championship and maintains all the changes to the Pokemon rule book and a very nice guy.

There was a tournament using the cards from the booster packs. If you don’t know what a booster pack is, it is a pack of 10 Pokemon cards that enhance the powers of the Pokemon cards you get in the standard deck.

We got 6 booster packs and we were supposed to make a deck of 20 cards out of those 60 and we get additional 20 energy cards from the organizers.

Here is me, carefully opening my Pokemon booster packs.

I was hoping to get Wailord Pokemon card with HP of 200 but, sigh, I didn’t get that. sob sob!

I played 3 games; won 2 and lost 1. It wasn’t really a fair competition, because I was playing against players in senior division, but hey, I had fun.

On the way back we stopped on the beach to watch the sunset. It was a bit cold but it still felt kind of nice.

After the tournament, I also got two more booster packs and one very special pre-release card. If I get a chance, I will scan it and post it here.

There is a state championship in March and I am thinking whether I can participate in it or not. I think I might, if I can construct a good deck.

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Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena

We went to the Doo Dah Parade in Pasadena today and it was kind of fun. Some of the “floats” and the performers were very funny.

Here are a couple of pictures.

A cupcake in the parade:

Dancing Colorful ghosts:

My dad wants to participate in the parade next year; I am not so sure!

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sledding on angeles crest highway

It was cold last week, so we decided to go sledding on the Angeles Crest Highway, which is not too far from us.

We hadn’t tried it before, so we got some info from our friend Scott and and he even loaned us some of his equipment! Look at the sled in this picture, it even has breaks -perfect.

We drove for half an hour and got to the Angles Crest highway, stopped at the ranger station, got parking permit and some info.

Drove another 15 minutes or so and found this camping area where there was some snow on the ground, cleaned out a path on a little slope and woo hoo, we were ready for some sledding. It was a lot of fun. A little more snow on the ground would have been great, but it was fun for sure.

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Live flight tracking of Sonya’s return from London

11.00 PM 11/23/07 Friday night California Time: Starting from London Flight British Airways 283. You can see my little plane.

11.20 AM 11/24 Saturday, just past the Hudson Bay over Canada. Altitude 36,000 ft, speed 486 knots

1.15 PM: cruising over Wyoming Altitude 36,000 ft. Speed 528 knots

1.45 PM. Crowded sky – Just over Utah – My flight number is BAW283 Same altitude speed 524 knts.

Here is the trip so far:

Hello California – I’ll be home soon.

2.57 PM California Time – I am home!

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Tracking Sonya’s flight – Delhi to London

OK, made it to London, about 6 hr flight.

I am trying to get back on the California Time, so I started on Friday at 3.00 PM California time, and got to London at 9.00Pm California time on Friday.

Next take flight from London to LAX at 11.00 PM and reach LAX at 3PM the following day – boy that’s a long flight.

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