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MERRY X-MAS TO EVERYONE. FIJNE FEESTDAGEN ALLEMAAL

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Counting down to 20 years

This October Maureen and I will celebrate our 20 year anniversary. Over the past months I have been repeatedly asked about the differences in some specific dates, so let me explain.

On October 22, 1987 I took Maureen out on a first date, I picked her up at her family's toko (Indonesian Foodstore) and we went to the beach where I stole the first kiss and asked her to date me. Knowing well that this was going to be a lifelong decision (yeah sure!) I wanted her to sleep over it and give the answer the next day.

October 24, 1987 is the date when Maureen said yes at her parents house which we then celebrated by going to the "Kermis"/fair.

On April 22, 1998 is when we got married, and within 48 hours emigrated to the United States to start anew. So that's the story.

FOLSOM 2007 -- NEW DISTANCE PR!!!!

Hi all,

This year I once again participated in the Folsom Triathlon. This year a very strong field showed up to compete. The whole Kain Performance Team had a blast and that lead to some great results. This year I started to take it a bit easier and refocused on the shorter Olympic distance (1.5km swim, 40km bike, 10km run). The shorter distance means I spend a bit more time in the pool as it has a bigger impact on the outcome of the race.

Folsom International Triathlon YoY results

Year ------- Swim-------- Bike -------- Run ------ Total

2004 ------- 0:24:12 ----- 1:07:34 ---- 41:13 ----- 2:17:30

2005 ------- 0:28:14 ----- 1:05:00 ---- 41:02 ---- 2:16:49

2006 ------- 0:24:26 ----- 1:03:43 ---- 39:42 ---- 2:09:22

2007 ------- 0:22:19 ----- 1:02:17 ---- 40:20 ---- 2:06:57

The time of 2:06:57 is a new Personal Record for the course but also a new PR for the distance for me. This time took me to a 22nd out off >550 overall and 5th out of 77 in my age group.

New challenge ahead!

On July 26 I celebrated my eight year anniversary at 'SkyStream' which was acquired in April 2006 by TANDBERG Television which was acquired in May 2007 by ERICSSON. This anniversay also marked the end of my career.

As of August 6 I will start a new opportunity with VeriSign where I will managing their business to one of their major accounts. This is a great opportunity with a very exciting team and I am excited to start. More later.

My basic contact info (personal e-mail and cell phone) will remain the same. As of 8/1/2007 my SkyStream / Tandberg / Ericsson e-mail will go into auto-response.

THANK YOU ALL. WILL MISS YOU!!!!

LEGO LAND SUMMER TRIP 2007

On Sunday July 1, 2007 we left impromptu on a weeks trip to Southern California. The goal of the trip was to visit Legoland south of LA, and perhaps add Seaworld and alike to it. We loaded the car up and headed out to Monterey.

July 1: Dennis the Menace park, Carmel beach, swim at pool
Once in Monterey we let the children play in Dennis the Menace park which is their favorite 'speeltuin' because of the real steam train that is standing there and the many European-like play structures.

With the kids a little bit tired, we met with our friends Jeff and MyLinh at Carmel beach, one of the most beautiful fine sand beaches on the west coast.

A couple of weeks ago during our Memorial weekend trip we ended up at a hotel that we liked to get back to and so we spend the night at Casa Munras where the kids swam in the 'heated' pool before we washed them and put them to bed.

A link with some great Monterey Pictures in case you ever wonder of going there.

July 2: Visit to Big Sur, Morro Bay and stay in Safari tent in El Capitano
The next morning we headed out to go to Big Sur, this area is a very rugged area of the California coast known for its cliffs and forests. As you can see we had beautiful weather and the colors of blue were overwhelming!

Our first stop was the famous Bixby bridge, where we each took our stand in front of the bridge, the pilon that Luke is standing on is on quite a steep part of the hill and probably not the best parental decision we made. But it looked fine at the time.












We stopped at Big Sur forrest to take a hike to the waterfall in Julia Pfeiffer Burns SP. The kids hiked up with us which depleted their energy enough that afterwards we could push through to Morro Bay, a fishing town in the middle between SF and LA. Morro Bay is know for Morro Rock and the gas powered Power plant that dominates the scenery

After a short visit to the town, eating some candy, and letting the kids roam the docks we left for our final destination of the day El Capitan Canyon where we suprised the kids with a Safari tent. These tents are awesome with full beds/mosquito netting/etc.

That night Maureen pulled of a dinner with Tri-tip steak, chicken and sausages having the whole campground water-teeth.

The lucky neigbours got the remaining tri-tip in return for smores for the children. Kids were playing till late in the evening having a blast climbing trees and just running around the campground with other kids. Nikki found some older firls and within minutes was absorbed in a group of girls brushing hair and being girls.

July 3: Arrive in Carlsbad, play at the hotel

The next morning we drove off to Carlsbad, this drive leads through Santa Barbara, Los Angeles and is about 1hr south of LA (MAP). We had chosen a hotel (Grand Pacific Palisades), next door to Legoland that had a great kids water park within the hotel. That night we put the kids to bed and they fell sound asleep for 11 hours straigth.


July 4: Visit LEGOLAND and watch fireworks downtown San Diego

The next morning we opened the park at Legoland, and what was anticipated to be a very crowded day ended up being a very nice crowd. At most we had to wait 5-10 minutes at any of the rides. One fifth oof Legoland is like Mini-World, like Madurodam in the Netherlands except its is all build from Lego-blocks. There are some pretty impressive structures, like the Eiffel tower, New York Skyline, New Orleans French Quarter, Las Vegas Hotel Strip etc.


Three fifth of the park is similar to other amusement parks with lots of rides, although these rides specialize for sub-10 years old. We did lots of family stuff where we competed as a family in dousing a fire, Luke and I found ourselves in a water gun / pirateship fight and the whole famuly watched the 'fireman show'.

One fifth of the park is a water-adventure. The themse is that of pirates ... yeah ... just like we are used to at home!!!! Pirates unite and lets get wet!!!!! Well maybe NOT. You see the water in the picture that had us soakin' wet in a matter of seconds!



















Fireworks in the San Diego bay.
From Legoland we departed for one of the nicest Marriott hotels (on points) in Southern California, the one at the Marina. We got an upgrade with a bay view so we can watch the fireworks although we strolled into the harbor to see that from close-up. Being a major marine base San Diego spends a lot of money on such a national holiday and they had fireworks all through the bay area that was synchronized with each other.

July 5: Play at San Diego hotel, pool, see Transformers

The next day we stayed in the hotel where Maureen could spend some time sun bathing and sitting around the pool. The Marriott has a great swimming pool as can be seen from our hotel room. During the day the hotel staff played with the kids (Luke) in the pool. Can you find Maureen and Luke in the smaller pool on the picture from the top???

Later on that day Luke finally had some time to build his new Lego 'hospital'. Later that evening we arranged for a 'hotel baby sitter' to attend to the children giving us some time to enjoy a viewing of The Transformers in the local cinema, and yes finally Maureen enjoyed this movie!!!!

July 6/7: Visit Hilmi/Vanessa/Kai in Redondo Beach

The final days of this trip we visited our friends in Redondo Beach where we spend the night catching up while our kids went nuttie with Kai and his Lightning McQueen car. The next morning before we embarked on the 6 hour trip home I wore the kids down in the adventure plex a major playstructure in Redondo Beach. They once again behaved very well and slept most of the ride or were watching television.

We arrived at 11pm on Saturday evening home from our weeks summer adventure.

STARBUCKS Family Pack

So what did this Starbucks family drink on the 4-5 hr trip home from Kings Canyon:
>> Papa - Grande Soy Chai Latte
>> Mama- Tall Caramel Machiato w Soy
>> Son - Kids Hot Chocolate
>> Daughter - Kids vanilla Soy steamer

And as you can notice I did not use my Starbucks alias of 'Klaus' but my name once again Jacco did not make it on the cup.

Weekend trip to KINGS CANYON

This weekend Maureen booked a trip for fathers day to Kings Canyon. We stayed at a great Lodge in the middle of the woods. Maureen booked our stay at a great place called MonteCito Lake Resort where the kids had a lake to fish in and canoe on, swimming pool to swim in, campfires to play with and make smores etc.

We ofcourse also worn them out with trips to see the local scenery such as the majestic superlarge Redwood and Sequoia trees. They are quite different! These trees make you feel miniscule, and when you see them within the forest surrounded by 'regular' trees it feels as if you are seeing a mamoth.

One of the days we went hiking to Moro Rock within the park. A great morning hike. Nikki (2yrs) and Luke (4yrs) both walked all the way to the top of the granite rock. This was several hundreds of stairs and many adults looked flabbergasted as these youngsters passed them.

Back at the camp/lodge we did some fishing in the lake. With thousands of fish trying to eat the pieces of bread it was possible to get some fish by fast scooping. Both Nikki and Luke had loads of fun by catching some.

To feed my soul I ran one early morning on a bit of a steep climb and in thin air, think a bit about the future and the past. Can anyone guess which song was blasting on my iPod ;-)

A big thank you to my Queen Maureen for organizing this great Fathersday gift!

PRE-SCHOOL GRADUATION DAY

This weekend Luke had his first graduation day from pre-school. Luek was excited about this for the whole week. The night before he came out of bed cause he had a little tummy ache as he was nervous and the morning off he woke up early as he was so excited about graduation.

The school had done a great job and had prepared a ceremony, they had prepared a graduation hat, gifts for the parents, practiced songs and the cermony itself.

Luke was not in the mood to take pictures, but over the past months we have prepared hime pulling different faces. The picture here depicts "Chocolate face", e.g. the face he pulls when het gets chocolate.

Ben and Irene joined us for the whole ceremony and that made Luke's day. It was as much a preparation for all of us as it was for Luke as we slowly get prepared for some of the US educational culture. It was really nice.

We had to take some funny pics outside... sorry but could not let it go by without having some fun.

FUN in KONA - New course PR

I just completed a great trip to Kona / Hawaii with the Kain Performance Team. After last years WC in Clearwater I was ready for a break and took 5 months 'off'. Ready to quite and at the last minute the team motivated me to go and with 8 weeks of training under the belt and one practice race (Bakersfield) I made the trip for my third year in Hawaii.

This year we showed up with 25 Kain athletes, a huge amount for a 5 hr flight (and expensive) destination. We were by far the largest team.

In contrast to previous years I added a little more fun element to it. Like no more positive messaging on the mirrors or eating Cashews/Pretzels all the time. Instead my room mates Bo and Kim who were in the exact same mode, kept the fun/race balane in check, add music, dancing, sunshine and tadddaaaa result was that we had a great time.

Over 1,000 athletes showed up at the start-line and with a mass start all wanted to hit that first buoy. The people in the picture are lined up on a line that spans from the water to the beach.

The water was 78F and super clear during the whole swim! Quite exciting for the fish below to see this spectacle of human swim/piling happening.

Most of my improvements came from the bike, with an average of 22.2 Mph for about 2 1/2 hrs. The run was as horrible (7:58 mm) as ever due to the heat, mostly felt during a section called 'the pit' where you have to run in soaring heat over black-top (asphalt) through lava fields. Its like putting a tread mill in a sauna.

I still managed somewhat of a finish sprint once I realized a PR was within reach

Now the race results somewhat unexpectedly turned out to be my best time over the past three years under approximately the same conditions / course. Reason for a big smile for days on end.

2005: 4:56:50
2006: 4:52:24 (gain on bike)
2007: 4:51:07 (gain on bike)

Once again my road machine (Kestrel) in full race configuration helped me out. Gawd I loooooveeeee my bike!!!!! Thanks as always to Coach Pete to get me in shape on a 8 week program and my room mates Kim and Bo for being best race friends ever.

WUSHU PURPLE BELT!

Luke trained my Sifu David Chang from Wushu Central