A picture can speak a thousand words... the only thing you can't see in these photos is how dang tired we are (but loving every minute of it).

Good times

Here's a short video... pretty cheesy I'll admit, but for those of you who have been thru this, I suspect you'll relate.

Tomás Update

Everything is moving along nicely... mom is healing and catching up on sleep, and baby is getting lots of good rest and nourishment.


We are planning to be home Friday AM, outside chance we could be home Thurs PM. Big thanks to all our friends and family who have given us such great love and support!! You are the best!!!

Tomás Prado Teeple

It's been a long road, but we made it! Mom and the little guy are doing GREAT!! Here is a quick summary... Tomás Prado Teeple was born at 8:30am Monday morning; 8lbs, 11oz, 20" long.

Any day now!!!

Looking good AP, less than 3 weeks now!!

Homestretch

AP's baby shower was last weekend... Nathalie, Erin, and Heather really pulled out the stops and put on a great party.

Look at the little thankyou packages, each one with an assortment of homemade treats and signed off by 'baby Teeps'.

The boys all went down to the local ice skating rink where Fin put on a real ice skating clinic for me. For some reason I thought I remembered learning how to ice skate at some point in my life, sadly mistaken. For what its worth, I was much better figuring out how to work the new walkie talkie than he was.

Sunday morning turns...

We had the full crew out this AM... Gass, Van, Brand, O'Brien, Joe, Clapper, and AP out with the camera! Tide was on it a little, and the current was doing its best to push us all down to VFW... excuses, excuses. Here are a few shots, thanks AP!! Follow below link for more...

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/72157594403647248/

Ready or not...

We are really in the home stretch here... AP is looking like she is ready to deliver tomorrow and from the looks of our latest ultrasound, our little guy is doing very well.

I guess the magic number is 36 weeks, after that we are a go anytime... right now we are only 32 weeks which means the bun needs to stay in the oven just a little while longer.

My mother visited last week and really helped us in our preparations, both mentally and physically as evidenced by this fantastic new crib! Thanks mom!!

Countdown is on...

Is this amazing or what... hard to believe we are still 2.5 months away from delivery. The little guy is now weighing around 2.5lbs and is 16" from head to toe, we are feeling very excited... and nervous.






Fall is happening in full force out here in the Sunset... great weather, offshore flow, and killer surf. Here's a shot from weekend before last. Click on the image to get the full size.

For Halloween this year I went as Kim Jong Ill (sp?)... unfortunately, my likeness to the North Korean leader wasn't close enough and so I had to explain to most people who I was supposed to be. AP was in stitches most of the night, I think mostly from just how goofy I looked. I thought I nailed it.

August in Indonesia part II

What could possibly top a 8 day surf charter in Indonesia? How about another 7 days of complete rest and relaxation in Bali!! Here is a quick snapshot of me doing what I do best, relaxing!! I was so sore that the first massage was actually pretty painful, of course I was diligent and didn't give up after the first few.

Ana is becoming quite the adventurous travler, while she was in Bali alone she saw festivals, ceremonies, and each day had some sort of activity. This is a photo AP snapped while at a cremation ceremony for a village chief. By the time I got back from the boat not only did she have Sanur wired, she was ready for a change so we didn't waste any time getting to the next destination, Ubud.

It was such a perfect vacation that we agreed that we want to do it again next year... except this time next year we will be a party of three!

The real headline...

Some interesting developments lately. Interesting in that they are the sort of things that really make you stop and think. Turning 40 last week was a trip. On one hand its easy to laugh it off and say, hey I'm young and blah blah, give me another beer, blah blah, let's surf, blah blah. On the other hand, 40 is half way thru life... and thats assuming I'm lucky enough to live to 80. I can't help but feel good about the life I've lived so far... got a decent education, made a contribution in a developing country, lived overseas, career, amazing wife... not bad for a guy from Astoria, Oregon.

Tomorrow baby Teeple will be 22 weeks old, or 5 1/2 months. At this point he (confirmed, it's a boy) is just starting to kick and if I am patient and hold my hand on Ana's belly long enough and if he gives a good strong kick, I can just barely feel it. Ana says she can feel him moving around all the time. His eyes are still sealed shut, but apparently he can now hear 100% of what is happening outside of the womb. He's half way ready to be born. Makes me stop and think.

August in Indonesia... part I

The idea started out as a clever (yet predictable) way to get our wives to let us guys go on an Indonesian charter-boat surf trip. Clever because we only realized after organization work started that we had 5 guys all turning 40 in 2006, but predictable because if it wasn't the birthdays I'm sure we would have cooked up some other excuse.

Organizing for this thing began almost a year ago, it wasn't too much work since we used a booking agency to help, but still there was a fair bit of running around that needed to be done. In the end we pulled together a great crew, some more experienced surfers, some less, some having extensively travelled in Indo, others never having been to Asia.

The trip plan was pretty simple, everyone make their own way to Bali, then meet up at the Airport and all fly together to Kupang, West Timor. From Kupang we'd get picked up at the airport by the charter boat crew (in trucks) and driven to the port where we would board our boat, the Mahallo II. Surprisingly, we had no issues at all with the pre-boarding travels, everyone and their boards arrived in perfect condition.

Boarding the Mahallo II, I think we all had fairly high expectations. By the end of the trip I don't there was a single one of us that didn't have their expectations exceeded. For me individually, it was a combination of several factors, great surf, killer food, comfortable sleeping quarters, friendly staff, and the sense that we were really out there on the frontier.

A little bit more on the surf for those interested... we had 4-6 foot faces the first few days, nice and clean with long, long left handers. Not so hollow, but plenty walled up for working on snaps, turns, cutbacks, etc. By the 3rd day it bumped up considerably to 10-12 foot + faces and all the other breaks nearby (the first few days we were on the same left hander) started firing, so we started deploying away teams to other spots. One of the spots was a right that was hollow, fast, and very, very critical. Critical in that about half of the guys hit bottom pretty hard on their first wave or two and only a small group elected for a second sesh there. The bigger sets were producing truly world class barrels, probably the best waves I've ever seen first hand. For a regular footer, this trip was really a good experience... either you are being challenged by going left or if you are going right, you are being challenged by the speed and criticality of the section and consequence. By the end of the trip, I think we were all surfed out. In fact judging by the number of guys sitting on the deck drinking beers the last day (could have been out getting one last surf) I'd say everyone got their fill of waves. Add'l pics posted below... http://www.flickr.com/photos/pradoteeple/sets/72157594281510404/

Long drive home...

Our first trip to Oregon this summer saw a few firsts. First time I've travelled to the Gorge when it was windy and didn't windsurf (at all)... and first time we drove home all the way to SF. On the windsurfing front, I sort of wasn't all that keen because I've got this pesky toe problem (broken) and I really want to get it healed before the boat trip in Indonesia, so that I didn't get to sail wasn't that big of a deal. The reason we drove back is because my Grandmother gave her car to Ana Paula. Also good news for me because it means that I can turn in my chaufeur's license (yes!). The first pic is a sunflower field we drove past on the drive to SF, I think AP really wished she had her good camera gear, unfortunately we just got this quick snapshot.

We stopped in Ashland, OR on the way home to break the trip up and were both charmed by this little town. The Shakespeare festival was in full swing and it was the day before the annual 4th of July parade. It was warm and everyone was smiling and in great spirits. Strongly recommend this stopover to anyone who has a little time to kill. This photo of me was taken in Lithia Park, which is right in the heart of downtown. The creek was ice cold and so it felt great on my foot... here I am soaking my left foot in the water to try to get the swelling in my toe to go down.

North Tower GG Bridge

Got a call from our friend Bruce the other day... 'man, its cranking at the N. Tower... lets hit it!' As usual it didn't take much convincing, though I did have to do a bit of arm twisting to convince AP it was a good idea. Anyway, great sailing spot except that if the wind cuts off, its a difficult swim. This photo is taken w/ a 300mm zoom so there is alot more water between land and where the edge of the photo starts. That small spot in the upper left is me swimming in my gear. I'd say this was about as close to getting swept out the gate as I've ever been (right behind me is the outgoing current). Nice views though.

India Images

I am continually amazed by the quality of the photos that AP takes. I was with her during this entire trip and looking thru the images, its as if she has captured the spirit of the place and people more than what I experienced first hand.

Here is AP at work... http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/sets/72057594121752257/

Got wind?

The windsurfing conditions up here in north bay have been a little dodgy in the early spring with most of the action happening along the coast down in Santa Cruz county... until this week. Check out the surge that hit Crissy Field this week... usually you can count the number of times per year it gets this windy on one hand. Sort of reminds me of sailing in the Gorge, except that the surface conditions when it gets windy here are very different from the Gorge. In the Gorge when it gets super windy, you get these big smooth swells that form in the section of the river with the most current, sometimes even breaking. Here when it gets super windy we get this chop that feels like it almost rattles your dental fillings loose. Thursday when this wind hit I was on my smallest sail and was still getting pushed around pretty good, gusts were in 40s. Friday was more manageable, felt much more in control and the wind seemed pretty consistent, so I spent most of my time sailing on the ocean swells up under the GG bridge. Fun. Saturday I took a long hard look at OB for windsurfing, but it just didn't look fun... lots of close-out type shore pound with very few surfable looking waves, so I decided to do Crissy again... another fun day of nice easy 5.0 sailing with clean ramps for lots of port-side jumping. Today me and AP are heading down to Santa Cruz to hang w/ the Clapp family and I'm also hoping to get at least 2 seshs at Dport (today and tomorrow). If Dport works out it will be a good haul for the weekend... 3 days strong wind bump & jump & 2 days of wave sailing!!

Namaste!

Where do riots breakout when a movie actor passes away of old age? Where do camels and elephants still serve as part of the work force? Where do huge Brahma bulls wander around and hang out side by side w/ people going about their daily routines? Its the same place where the wealthiest of wealthy rub shoulders with people who suffer thru their daily existence, not really sure where their next meal comes from... and in the background to this is the everpresent essence of jasmine. Of course we are talking about India.

Mao knows best

What a great trip... I hit all my biz objectives and AP had a great first trip to China. Wish we could have had a little more time to get off the beaten path as most of the things we did were activities I'd done multiple times already, that said, I think it was a pretty incredible experience for AP and I got a ton of fulfillment from watching her interact in a completely foreign environment.

As they say a photo is worth a thousand words, so I'm going to keep this short... here is the first set of photos, these are all from the Forbidden City in Beijing... photo credit to my favorite photographer, AP... http://www.flickr.com/photos/byana/sets/72057594094522808/

Tomorrow we leave for India...

Beijing, China

Ana Paula in Beijing... whooda thunk? Pretty cool. In one day AP took over 230 photos, and that was just Forbidden City, Tianamen Square, and the antique shopping district. It was a long day for sure... 9am to 6pm on our feet the entire time. Today I'm in the office (found a 15 minute slot to post this) all day and AP is off on a day trip to the Ming Tombs and the Great Wall. We dumped all the photos to the PC last night, so she has plenty of space... she took some great photos yesterday, check back in a few days and we'll upload a bunch.

London Calling!!

Windsor castle. Sometimes the planners of these work meetings pick areas that are easy on the eyes... and as luck would have it, my work meetings in London this week are taking place at a hotel which is situated squarely in front of the famous Windsor Castle. I'm not exactly sure about the historic relevance of this place, except that I know the Queen of England spends most of her summers here. I also know from my morning walk from the hotel to the Starbucks where I'm sitting now, that it is a very big castle. Not that I've gathered much comparative data on castles in general, but it just seems big. This castle just goes on and on. Almost seems more like a walled city than a castle. Took a stroll thru the little village that is situated adjacent to the castle and there are all the typical english shops like Marks and Spencer, Boots Pharmacy, etc., the only problem is that with the exchange rate where it is, prices seems crazy. The latte I'm sipping here set me (Intel) back 2.68 pound, which is almost $5.00!! My 20 minute taxi ride (shorter than the sunset to SFO) was an insane 48 pounds, which is almost $100!