Happy Anniversary to us! Lucky #13... yippee! Last night, Dawn and I went to downtown Stockton to have dinner and catch a movie. Recently, the city of Stockton put out the call for street performers. I wasn't sure how that would work until last night when we saw a great mime performance. This guy was very talented and got a lot of attention. The downtown plaza is a cool place and having performers like that really enhances the environment.

Check out Mime Video 1 | Mime Video 2



We also watched a local punk-turned-bluegrass band, Lonesome Valley Shiners, perform a couple of songs as participants in the Music in the Square. They started late, a little after 7:30, which made for some not so happy people in the audience. Right before they went on, a volunteer downtown guide gave the band 5 minutes to start playing or they'd have to leave. The music was great; I can't wait to see what other acts are playing for the rest of the summer. Hey, I've got an idea, get The Grape down there!

After the entertainment we saw I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry... very, very funny!

Check out pics here.

So, do you have some time to kill? If you're like us (well, most of us) and love the Simpsons, then you have to check out the Simpsonizeme site. Then, rush out and go watch the Simpsons Movie!

Here we are, Simpsonized.


Check out the rest of our Simpsons pictures here.

Although Emily's team played exceptionally well and shut of their first four opponents, a couple of crushing defeats at the hands of Denmark and Sweden kicked her team out of the championship matches. Instead, her team spent the last day of play as spectators.

We talked to Emily a little while ago as she was packing her stuff before bed. She leaves Amsterdam in the morning and will be home tomorrow afternoon. Yippee!

We can't wait to hear more about all the fun she had while in Holland. Keep an eye on our podcast as I'm sure our next episode will feature a lot of her stories. Emily took a lot of pictures so I'm sure those will be up soon.

Emily is having a blast in Holland! Over the first weekend she visited a place where they make cheese and, of course, wooden shoes. She's also done some shopping and visited the Hard Rock Cafe. Emily also got to learn the game of Korfball and spent some time at the beach. Here's a picture she text-paged us from her hotel.


For the first few days her and her team worked on drills and had practices that lasted up to 4 hours - in less than California weather.


The games started today and Emily's team won their first two games, both 2-0, against Holland and England. As a forward and mid-fielder, she had a total of two shots on goal and one assist! Congratulations!!!

The team has a light day today with only one game scheduled which means, uh-oh... more shopping time!

Nothing says late July in this family quite like the annual Family Dinner a la Havens style. The weather was perfect, the pool was perfect, the food was, well, the food is always grubbin'!. Yes, a good time was had by all... even the losing volleyball team



Check out the pics here.

Emily's flight was delayed leaving San Francisco and didn't arrive in Amsterdam until just before 4 am Pacific Time. We talked to her after she arrived and again later on in the morning. She slept for most of the flight and is just a little jet lagged. Right now she is in her room with her two roommates waiting to meet with their coach. She's hoping to get to bed soon since she is meeting the rest of the team at 7 am tomorrow.

Emily left San Francisco today for Holland where, along with the other People to People Sports Ambassadors, will participate in the Youth Friendship Games. Emily's plane lands in Amsterdam in just a couple of hours and will be shuttled off to the village where all the other athletes will be meeting, well, soccer players anyway since they went out a day earlier than the other athletes. Then she'll go to her hotel, meet her team and coaches and then drills and practice start Saturday morning.

We hope to hear from her sometime tomorrow and will post an update at some point after that.

We're proud of you Emily. Have fun and play hard!

What a hot day in Stockton... I think it hit 100 degrees by 10 am! No worries though... that's why we had super soakers for the kids. Sure, a pool would be better but the Havens were out of town.



Check out the pics here.

Wow! That's the best way to describe this phone. Since January I have been eagerly waiting for the iPhone. Could this small device truly be all that Apple and AT&T said it would be? Was it really going to perform like those great videos Apple released in the last couple of weeks? For the last several years I have carried about 10 different cell phones and a few different PDA's and Blackberries. I have never found a device that did a good job of syncing my life (e-mail, calendar, contacts, etc.) and have been stuck with a Razr for the last 18 months, waiting for the iPhone.

After spending 20 hours in line with Emily, I finally got an iPhone in my hand shortly after the AT&T store re-opened. The employees of the store were great and added to the carnival like atmosphere. Once I got home I took the iPhone out of the box and connected it to my iMac. My activation went flawlessly and my number moved from my Razr to my iPhone in just a couple of minutes. Syncing my pictures took the longest time but by 7:00 I was making calls and sending e-mails.




Although it could have been due to the plethora of blogs, podcasts and the Apple videos about the iPhone before it was released, I had no problems whatsoever setting up or using the device. The menus and functions are all very intuitive and most have a similar look-and-feel as their Mac counterparts.

I couldn't browse the internet using WiFi the first night but once I edited the static IP WiFi options on the iPhone I was on my wireless network. I have pretty slow DSL so I didn't mind using the Edge network. Websites really looked great on here. I bet the NY Times got a lot of traffic because that was one of the first sites I could think of to visit.



Visual voicemail is awesome! Instead of "dialing" in to the voicemail system and fumbling my way through the menu to find the options for greeting there is a "Greeting" button once I selected voicemail on the Phone menu. I was purposely missing some calls just to get a voicemail... something I would have never done with any other phone! This feature is amazing!

Google maps has great detail on the satellite view and looking for directions was a snap, even without GPS. I will never get lost again (yeah, right)!

The camera feature is cool... with it's full screen view finder and the pictures seamlessly work iPhoto. With good lighting it takes pretty good picture!



The typing did take some getting used to... notice I said "did" and not "does". After a full day of e-mailing and texting I've got it down! Typing is very comfortable, more so than on my Blackberry and faster than traditional predictive text. I really like how it guesses my mistakes when I "fat-finger" a word. I thought I was going to be disappointed that I can't text page pictures but it is so easy to e-mail which is even better!

All in all, this is the greatest phone ever and I had a blast waiting in line with Emily and the other iPhone iPhans!

Time again to plug two great podcasts. If you have an iPhone (or just want to learn more about it) check out Today in iPhone. Rob does a great job covering the iPhone. Also, check out Victor's show and blog at Typical Mac User.

Check out the pictures here.