On Friday night we were woken up by violent 'dry' (i.e. no rain!) thunder storms. These seemed to have passed by the time we awoke on Saturday morning, so my energetic husband decided he'd go on a run while I was left in bed to snooze some more!

He'd not been gone more than about 10 minutes when the thunder and lightning started again, this time accompanied by heavy rain. I didn't know which running route he'd taken, so couldn't take the car to rescue him... I was glad when he arrived home safely without being turned into toast! He had thoughtfully curtailed his run since he knew I'd be fretting!

The thing that made me laugh was that the sea birds' reaction to the storm was to leave their safe places at ground level by the water and flock in land to perch, perilously at the top of the trees! Silly creatures! Anyway, it meant that we had Egrets perching in the tree just in front of our patio for the duration of the storm!

Hey there! This weekend, Ed and I went to our first baseball game! Ed got tickets through work to go and see the SFO Giants vs the LA Dodgers (arch rivals). We went with a couple from the 20's group, Vic and Brianna. Anyway, it was all going well as we caught the Cal train into the city, but then, to our horror, as we gazed on the crowds of supporters flooding towards the stadium, we realised that, instead of us wearing a 'neutral' colour, we had inadvertently BOTH put on tops of the EXACT blue worn by the LA Dodgers... oops! It got worse when we were told by our friends that we were sitting in the rowdy seats where fights often break out (!) Ed bought himself a Giants cap (leaving his wife to fend for herself!) and, as soon as it was cool enough, we put on our jackets!

It was a great atmosphere, although there was a heavy police presence and we saw quite a few rowdy supporters thrown out, but in general it was fairly light-hearted banter - and none of it was directed towards us, despite our apparel!

We were educated in American fast food delicacies such as Garlic fries and I had my first ever 'Corndog'. None of these treats were delicious enough to tempt Ed and I to queue up to try them again, but it was fun to try them!

The game was dull. Really dull. Since watching the game we have discovered that a large proportion of Americans also think Baseball is a pretty dull game. To make up for the fact that the game is not really worth watching, the organisers do a great job of entertaining the crowd by regularly stopping the game to film individuals in the crowd as they conduct 'dance-a-thons' or 'Kiss-a-thons' on the large screen... only in America!

We left when the Giants were losing 7 - 1. Not sure what the final score was, but I know the Giants did not make a come back!

Suffice to say, Ed and I are unlikely to become Giants 'fans'. We are told that American football is a MUCH better game, so that will be our next venture into watching live sport out here! Oh how we miss rugby and cricket!

Again, SOOOOoooooo sorry for the lack of recent posts! I guess as life settles into a steady rhythm, there is less exciting stuff to report...

BUT, we DID have our 11th wedding anniversary on the 29th August! We had a lovely day relaxing by the pool and then, about 6pm we headed for the city, went over the Golden Gate bridge and into Sausalito. Ed had booked a table at 'Spinnakers' - a restaurant that is right on the bay with views back towards the city. We had a table by the window and enjoyed a lovely meal in the perfect location!

Every year on our wedding anniversary, we have the tradition of conducting a 'wrinkle audit' to check the progress of aging in each other (what fun!). Despite a few laughter lines and some inexplicable forehead furrows, we decided we were still looking pretty 'hot'... the new discovery this year were Ed's 9 grey hairs... I've had a few for a while, but this development was definitely new. It's a slippery slope from here!

At the end of the meal, a gentleman in his 50's came up to us and said "I'm really sorry to do this, it's embarrassing, but you two were just so delightful to watch during dinner, you're so obviously in love - are you newly-weds?" ...he couldn't believe we were celebrating 11 years! Sadly I didn't get the chance to tell him that the secret to a long and happy marriage is keeping Jesus firmly at the centre...we're so grateful to him for the gift of our marriage!