06.15.06 - I'm not the only one....

leaving San Diego. As sad as it may be, 2 friends will be leaving in June. I'm excited for both Katie and Ayse as they both travel to different countries in pursuit of their goals. It makes my journey back to Ventura county seem insignificant. I mean, worst case scenario, I'm only 3 hours from San Diego and I can visit any weekend I'd like. These two would have to spend hundreds of dollars on a plane ticket plus travel times of at least 10 hours to make it back to the US. I guess it puts my piddly move into perspective...

Luckily, I had the chance to see Katie before she left for South America. Her friend, April, from the college days flew out to California to convince her to stay. They ended up spending the weekend driving up the California coast and spent some time in Ventura. From walking around town, to dinner at Cafe Bariloche and Karaoking until 3am, and finally, a visit to the Ventura harbor, I had a great time catching up one last time...



Oh yeah, one last thing. April was quick with some memorable quotes. Here's one that I've remembered....
"Money can't buy you happiness....but it can buy you a sea-doo, and everyone I see on a sea-doo seems happy..."

06.04.06 - Rock N Roll Marathon Supporter

When my co-worker Phil mentioned that he was going to run the SD Rock N Roll Marathon, I jumped at the opportunity to head back down to San Diego for another fun filled weekend....I made some plans with Ashley to drive down Saturday since she's also friends with Phil and wanted to cheer him on. The plan was to leave in the morning, make it into Del mar in time for lunch, then do a hike at Torrey Pines Park. After that, I had made plans to meet up with Sarah and Paul for the afternoon, then dinner plans with everyone at they Hilton off Mission Bay where they were also putting on a Lindy By the Bay dance....
Now, I really don't consider myself an anal planner but after I told Ashley of these weekend plans, she nearly flipped. I guess I hadn't alotted time for a "costume change" nor "just hanging out by the pool" time which I found out is unacceptable in her world...I guess i'll have to update my Excel Spreadsheet Planner to incorporate these line items for future reference....


As for the Marathon, I know that Phil was glad to have finished although I'm sure he would've liked to have been able to run the entire way. I invited Laura to join me in running with Phil the last 8 miles of the race. By that time, he had already run 12 miles on an aggravated surgically repaired knee. It looked painful and I don't know if I would've had enough will power to push through the pain and finish the last 20 miles.

Like all the previous trips down to SD since my move, I dedicated Sunday afternoon to swimming and hanging out at the cove. The weather was amazing and the water temp cooperated as well. I went out with Anne and Katie to the 1/2 mile buoy and it felt like I was home again.

For as much as I enjoy being down in SD, I've come to realize that Thousand Oaks/Ventura is hardly "roughing it". There are many qualities that I also love about my new home and I'm lucky to be able to have experienced both.

05.20.06 - Jill and A.J.'s wedding

05.11.06 - A Street With My Name....

I think I'm finally home. I've found a street in Ventura with my name on it....Literally. The street was quite nice (like me....) and well kept (that's me too....) but I noticed that the street, being only one block long, is similarly, quite short. sigh.....

A month has now passed since I started working at Amgen. I'm finally getting the hang of this large corporation culture. It really reminds me of UCSD (Have I mentioned this before?) with all the people on campus. Focusing on one task at hand right now seems so tough because there are so many projects on my plate. I guess i'll have to become a master juggler.


Besides that, I've really enjoyed my co-workers in the Automation Dept. as well as a few that i've met outside my dept. I've spent quite a bit of time hanging out with Ashley (from Maine) Where's Maine, you might ask? Its all the way on the other side of this huge country.....She came out here less than a month ago just to work at Amgen as well. I guess i shouldn't complain about my "tough" re-location from San Diego...=P

04.18.06 - T.O, Baby....T.O!

Doesn't have quite the same ring to it but its still exciting starting in a new company. I'm constantly being amazed at how large Amgen is. Kinda makes me reminsce about UCSD, especially after working at a small company for 7 years. There are multiple cafeterias on campus, along with a 2 story gym, basketball courts, research labs, admin buildings and the like. There are tons of work related training classes I'm taking (from HR stuff to Mfg stuff) so I'm "in class" a couple of hours each day. I've got over 100 SOP's (Standard Operating Procedures) to read just so i can start doing my job....

All in all, I'm glad to be here and am excited about the opportunities this company will provide. I just hope I don't disappoint. In the meantime, I have been getting on my bicycle quite a bit. I'm living in temporary corporate housing which is only a few miles away from work. It allows me to scope out the area and neighborhoods without having to waste much gas. I even signed up to be part of Amgen's cycling club....I guess they have a team too but i know i won't be racing anytime soon....

Do I miss San Diego? Definitely. especially now that nicer weather is coming around. I won't be able to make the 15 minute drive to the cove to enjoy a swim in the ocean. I've yet to find a place for dancing that isn't in LA (might have to succumb...) But most of all, I miss all the friends I have in SD who keep me company.....

Till the next update.....

04.08.06 - Leaving San Diego

I'd like to thank everyone who came out and helped me enjoy my last 24 hours in San Diego. These pictures represent only a fraction of the 12 hour festival so if anyone else has pictures they'd like to share, please let me know!

04.01.06 - Jen and Matias Wedding

After 8 grueling years, the Ironman triathlon that was Matias and Jen's courtship, came to a finish as they finally tied the knot in San Diego today. Congratulations!

03.23.06 - Cowles Mountain Hike

Thursday started out as a normal day in the life of an unemployed Regis. After a(way too early) run around the lake with Marion, I spent the rest of the morning checking email, a few computer related forums and, of course, myspace. I had made plans to help out my friend, Katie, retrieve pictures from her corrupt memory card. Pictures from our empananda-making experiment (quite successful i might add) few weeks prior had yet to have been downloaded.



After about an hour of attempted retrieval of said pictures and some data recovery software purchased, we were able to get a few pics back but decided that it really wasn't that important and so we went on a hike instead instead. Donning my usual well-traveled flip-flops, Katie and I took to the nearest mountain (Cowles Mtn) to check out the view...

03.21.06 - Ventura

I'm currently moving up to Ventura, Ca. For those who check my website, it is currently down since that computer is still packed away.

Besides the chores of unpacking and packing, Trisha from San Diego had invited me to the Price is Right studio filming in LA. Along with Kate and Chelsea, we made it to the studio at 6:15am only to find out that we were wwwaaayyyy tooo late on arriving.



We ended up being 425th in line and they only took the first 200 people for the show. I guess next time we'll have to show up at 4am or something.

So since we had the whole day available, we made a fieldtrip to the nearby La Brea Tarpits and the neighboring LA Art Museum.

03.15.06 - New Format

I've been considering porting my website onto this blog format. Here is a picture:


Here is a video



Here is a slideshow