A little pitch 'n catch

Hey Collinses!

So, we've had a beautiful stretch of weather out here in the Bay Area, and Sarah and I have been doing our best to take advantage of it. We spent a lovely day out in the Filoli Gardens, which is an utterly fantastic manicured estate just south of SF. (It must be beautiful for me to rave about gardens.) We were joined by Mom, Laura and Luke, and Kathleen. A great day all around! I posted a few photos of the flowers below.

As part of the festivities, Luke and I had a good ol' fashioned catch. He's become quite a tee-baller, and it was great to practice our grounders, pop flies, and the like. I've put a sequence of the photos below. They're pretty funny: you can see how I'm trying my best to fulfill my avuncular duty (just like my fearless uncles decades ago ...), and the end result is Luke sitting on the ground with his hat pulled over his face. Kids ...

Hope you all are very well. Let's hear some chatter!

Love,

Brian and Sarah

Back in Country

Hello Collinses,
I'm back in the USA from my lovely winter trip to the mountains. All is well and I'm all settled back into being an American again. The puppy even seems to recognize me (she is chewing on a water bottle on my chest as I type). The trip went by rather quick and the winter weather was very mild this year. Lots of rain and mud. I did get one HUGE snow storm with snow coming down in snowballs. Very cool to see a place usually covered in browns and grays, canvased in white. The work was fun and I have to say turning 30 out there dampened the blow. I even made it into the middle east twenty minutes before the inauguration. How surreal, watching it from across the world with a roomful of people so far from their homes. I'm glad I made it in time.
I hope all is well with you guys and I will see some of you west coasters soon I think.

Brian, I have your 'package' ;)

'Talking Dog For Sale

A guy is driving around the back woods of Montana and he sees a sign in front of a broken down shanty-style house: 'Talking Dog For Sale ' He rings the bell and the owner appears and tells him the dog is in the backyard.

The guy goes into the backyard and sees a nice looking Labrador retriever sitting there.'You talk?' he asks. 'Yep,' the Lab replies. After the guy recovers from the shock of hearing a dog talk, he says 'So, what's your story?' The Lab looks up and says, 'Well, I discovered that I could talk when I was pretty young. I wanted to help the government, so I told the CIA. In no time at all they had me jetting from country to country, sitting in rooms with spies and world leaders, because no one figured a dog would be eavesdropping.'

'I was one of their most valuable spies for eight years running. But the jetting around really tired me out, and I knew I wasn't getting any younger so I decided to settle down. I signed up for a job at the airport to do some undercover security, wandering near suspicious characters and listening in. I uncovered some incredible dealings and was awarded a batch of medals.' 'I got married, had a mess of puppies, and now I'm just retired.'

The guy is amazed. He goes back in and asks the owner what he wants for the dog. 'Ten dollars,' the guy says. 'Ten dollars? This dog is amazing! Why on earth are you selling him so cheap?'

'Because he's a liar. He never did any of that shit.

Too many pictures of Ed. The Old Guru

The Blogging Collinses!

Hello dear family,

Who knew, the Collinses are bloggers! Thanks for the updates, Matt and Dad. Matt, so far, you've set the record for further blog post ... by about 11,000 miles. We're glad to hear you made it safe and sound. 

OK, as we all know, our dear (Aunt) Eleanor recently celebrated her (ahem) 40th birthday. Happy Birthday! Before we get to read her account of her big day on this blog (hint, hint), I thought I'd post a picture of Eleanor and the rest of us from my and Sarah's visit out there. What a good looking group!

And, not to be out done, I present to you all ... the first Collins blog video! OK, OK, it's nothing too extraordinary, just a short clip from a great time Sarah and I had atop a jeep at Safari West. Safari West is an African wildlife breeding ground and preserve, right here in the Bay Area ... who knew?! We saw cheetahs, zebras, lemurs, and just about everything in between. Overall, a great afternoon.

OK, enjoy, and more soon!

Love,

Brian

Even More Pix!

OK, here are the final three pix.  Apparently, the Secret Service wouldn't let Obama stop to get my autograph.  But they did let him wave to me.

More Pictures!

Matt: 

Glad you made it safely over there.  In your honor, I'm posting the picture of our dinner at the Old Ebbitt Grill in D.C. on January 4, 2009.  

I'm also posting a couple other pix that have a military theme:  one at the Vietnam Memorial and one at the D-Day plaque (in honor of Uncle David, who was born on June 6) at the WW II Memorial.

There's also a pix of Sarah, Jo-Ann and me at dinner at the Willard Hotel on our last night in D.C.

Finally, there's the Obama Sighting pix I posted before.  But this time I enlarged it so you could see him waving at me.

I have no idea in what order these pix will appear. So bear with me.

I think I'll have to send the other three pix in a subsequent post.

Ed.

In Safe

Hello Collinses!
Just writing to say I arrived safely in Afghanistan a few days ago and am all checked in and working away. Flight here was great. Very relaxing. Got to watch two movies and listen to Sinatra the whole time. How cool am I. Never got held up anywhere and the guy I relieved got out early. Now I'm here in the middle of an Afghan winter. Great. Hasnt been that bad yet. Days are nice (high 40s), but the nights are pretty chilly. The uninsulated hooches havent been that bad though. (My last two people out here both left massive blankets). As I write, even in late-Jan in the mountains, it's pouring outside...??? So now I'm off to deal w/ that.

Hope all is well w/ you guys and I'll see most of you in late-March

-zez


ps address remains the same:

Matt Zezima

PRG 6-11

APO, AE 09354

Hi everyone.  This is from Ed Collins.  I loved the pictures Brian posted, especially the sunset by the Golden Gate Bridge, (reminded me of my daily bus commutes to Port Authority in New York).  I'm going to try and post some pictures of the visit Jo-Ann and I made to D.C. in early January. 

Here's Jo-Ann, with the Lincoln Memorial in the background.  After I took this picture, I passed the camera to Jo-Ann and she took my picture, (which I'll try to show below)

Jo-Ann stayed where she was, and snapped my picture, with the Washington Memorial in the background.  What a neat vista ... the two Memorials, with the long reflecting pool in the middle.

This is as close as we could get to the Capitol, where Obama was sworn in.

Hello Collinses!

Hello family!

Here's the first post of our Collins family blog. The idea first came up during a great lunch in the Colonial Inn in Concord Square with Penny, Steve, Sarah and me--photo to the right. So, now we get to bring it to life! 

As I wrote you all in my email, we hope this blog will serve as a tool to improve our communication with each other, so we can share what's going on in our lives with our big, wonderful family. 

Anyway, this is just the first post of many. Sarah and I returned home from a two-week stint on the east coast: NJ, NYC, Boston, and DC. Including Collins family visits with Penny and Steve, Matt and Jess (photo to the right), and Charles, Eleanor, Ellie & Tom, Chip & Christine and Julia & Matt ... and, oh yeah, Dad and J0-Ann! 

Anyway, it was a great trip overall. But, it is always nice to return home to Sausalito. Here's a quick pic from my ferry ride home from work. We feel very lucky to be living in such a beautiful place. It could only be better with some Collins family visitors!

I look forward to reading everyone's posts and opening up a great, long (online) conversation amongst us all.

Love,

Brian and Sarah

ps. And, remember, save the