The Taber Family Blog

McNear's Beach

This was a really nice weekend overall. It started in a relaxing sort of way with my company picnic on Friday. The picnic was held at McNear’s Beach Park near San Rafael, CA. What a beautiful location for a company picnic. The weather was spectacular and since we were on the beach (on the SF Bay), the panoramic views were amazing. Other than a moderate sun burn on my noggin, the picnic was a great way to start the weekend.

Saturday afternoon, Denise and I became kidless (girls with their dad, and the boys with their mom), so we decided to have a date night out. We enjoyed a great dinner at Los Reyes in VV and then saw the new movie called Funny People.  Needless to say it was pretty darn funny. On Sunday, I decided to finally build the raised garden for Denise I had always been promising. I found a great building plan on the Sunset.com website and we went out and purchased the lumber and other materials. For the rest of the day, I was cutting, drilling, driving screws and applying redwood waterproofing oil. The wooden box for the garden turned out amazingly well and looks fantastic. Now I have to sink it into place in the back yard and get some good soil to fill it up. After that, it’s all Denise’s!

Brief Encounter

And to finish off a great weekend, Denise and I had a wonderful dinner at my sister’s house. Our tradition of watching old time movies led to us enjoying an oldie from 1945 called “Brief Encounter“. The premise centers on a man and a woman who meet at a train station in England, fall in love and have to ultimately decide what to do with their improper relationship. They are both married to other people and have families. Sprinkled throughout the movie were musical moments from Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2. One of my favorites! The movie was filmed in England at the tail end of WWII, which meant the film crews had to find locations (like train stations) far enough away from London to avoid by the nightly blackouts because of the threat of bombing attacks by Germany. Interesting stuff.