Drive Home, 2/20/08

On the drive home we stopped at 1) an antique store in CO where I bought a $15 painting, 2) the Virgin River Gorge to do some 'canyoneering', and 3) Las Vegas to visit Richard and collect our free iphones.

Ouray, CO 2/13-2/19/08

Pitfire Pizza, 2/2/08

Echo cliffs, 2/2/08

BackBlog. Joshua Tree, 1/12-13/08

Ken organized a large group Joshua tree trip and set a bunch of top ropes both Saturday and Sunday. The Saturday climbers included Paul, Adam, Ellen, Dax, Dave O, Raina, Vivian, Niki, Steve, Courtney, Melissa, Tim, Tami and my good friend Erika Streck. Erika did an amazing job for one of her first times climbing. She got on the hardest climb first and managed to fight her way to the top! Ken did an impressive lead up a 5.9 with a chossy roof. There was a beautiful rainbow across wing-shaped clouds while Adam finished a climb.

Dinner at Jenny & Eric's, 1/30/08

Jenny invited us for an amazing send off dinner consisting of salmon, special LA frozen yogurt, and ofcourse Ram. My Dad and Linda both agreed that it was the highlight of their trip.

La Brea tar pits and the Grove, 1/27/08

It rained on our way to the museum but cleared up for a stop at the grove on the way home.

Santa Monica, CA 1/26/08

Dad and Linda came for the month of January. They rented an apartment in Marina Del Rey from 1/8 to 1/31 and hope to arrange a similar work vacation for 2 months next year.

Hiking near the Hollywood sign, 1/19/08

Visitors aren't allowed to hike up to the sign due to trouble with vandalism. It once was altered to read "HOLLYWeeD" in the 70's (for a movie) and "Go UCLA" in the 90's.

Getty Villa in Malibu, CA 1/13/08

Went to the Getty Villa with Dad, Linda, Debbie, Greg, Greg, Jessica, Erika and her friend Eugene. We took a thorough self-guided tour from 10:30-5pm and then went to dinner at Gladstone's.

Lasik Eye Surgery, 1/8/08

My eyes were about -5.5(R) and -5.75(L) diopters with a slight astigmatism in my left eye. Contacts caused a vein to appear in my right eye due to lack of oxygen to my cornea. I wore glasses for the past 2 years, but ended up with an eye callus due to sun exposure. Seems like either you should wear glasses with lenses that darken in the sunlight or get laser eye surgery.

I had lasik with intralase (laser only) and customVue (wavefront guided) technologies at the Maloney Vision Institue near Wilshire/Westwood. It cost $6,400, but insurance covered $600, and I had a flexible spending account for a 30% discount on the rest.

On 1/9/08 I had 20/12.5(L) and 20/15(R), which is better than normal vision (20/20) and better than I have ever seen (even with glasses and contacts). At first my vision was a little hazy, but it pretty much just looked like a smoggy day in LA. :) On 1/29, my vision was measured as 20/16 in both eyes, and it appears to have stabilized. The haze disappeared after about 2 weeks, and the night time halos disappeared about 3 weeks post surgery. While lasik came with a pretty big price tag, it's amazing to re-see beautiful places like Joshua tree.