Dinner and Philosophy

Was at dinner today with my dining club (well that's what we call it) 12 of us came today. The restaurant is inside a hotel and lakeside and only 5 minutes from where I work. We've been to different restaurants before but this is the first time we went to a place where there's a jazz group playing music. Before the musicians took to the stage and before we even got our order in, a dance instructor came up to us and asked if we'd be interested in learning swing dancing for free. So a few of us went up and learned a few dance steps. It was fun, it even made my hubby dance in public. He didn't, wouldn't dance, but he did today.

It was a long dinner, 3.5 hours. During dinner the musicians played. Older people went up to dance and they kept dancing while we kept talking. The service was slow, but the waiters were really nice and friendly plus we enjoyed talking anyway.

Then one of us said those old people have more fun than us. They keep dancing. He kept on talking about how younger people don't have clue. How we should seize the day and enjoy it. Because once we die what are we going to leave? Our computers and carbon footprint :)

Needless to say, there was some wine and beer on the table :)

Food Craving Friday

Burgers, anyone?

Do you like burgers? What is the best burger you've had?

Middle of the month

I have nothing exciting to report, but there is a calling for me to blog and here I am heeding that call.

Let me begin by whining, the same old same old complaints. That I have no time for fun. True.

Having said that I am reminded of the wonderful time my hubs and I spent with another couple from church. They invited us over for dinner. The guy loves to cook, just like my hubs. We've been to their place last Christmas Eve for a little soiree.

We had a fun time chatting about places we've been and places we've long to visit and fun experiences we've had traveling. All this while the guy was cooking.

After dinner we went to our community theater to watch our local actors in a musical called ANYTHING GOES. It was a fun evening. The cast was good. The play was fun, beats watching old movies on tv on a Saturday night.

I can't believe I haven't been to the community theater before. For certain I have seen their flyers and posters all over town. I have even eyed several performances in the past including shows by the high school drama club, but I just never got around to it.

Okay so I had fun on Saturday night.

I was looking forward to a fun Sunday afternoon in the garden. We have finally gotten a dry weekend, and mild too. This after a horrendous lightning and thunder show on Thurs or was it Fri.

However, I didn't check my calendar. I had a meeting/webinar at church so we ended up spending the afternoon at church.

I'm looking forward to repotting my bulbs now that their blooms have died and their leaves are just about to. I would like to put them in a fancier container/vase and keep them inside. We've had these bulbs for years and had all dug them up from the ground when we were moving. We replanted them in whatever pots we could find at that time. When we moved we dug up even the bulbs to take with us. We didn't dig this one rose bush that my brother gave my mom, but the same brother dug it up and brought it to where we now live. Funny. That rose bush is currently planted in the ground and is surrounded by weeds. So I will have things to do in the days to come. I am just hoping that the weather would be warm enough for me to be in the garden when I get home from work everyday at 7 pm.

Weekends are lost causes. I don't even want to schedule anything anymore. There is a standing duty that needed to be performed every Saturday morning. And Sundays are church days.

By the way, we have not made any bookings regarding our vacation plans as of yet. It's just crazy expensive. This is just not vacation per se. We are going home to my husband's homeland to visit family, my in-laws. The plane fare alone is unthinkable sometimes. Rather than just stay with them, we also think that paying that much for an airfare we should also be going somewhere else.

I think we're going to hit the pedal with planning and booking this vacation. So far, we are still playing with either going to China, Thailand or India, all of which are okay with both of us. We really don't mind where we go for the first week or 10 days as long as the price is right, right?

In the meantime, peace!!!!

Street Photography #15:

San Jose del Cabo

$40,000 car and random thoughts

There I was sitting comfortably in the couch about to watch American Idol when hubby walks in the room with a piece of paper in his hands.

"Do you want to buy a $40,000 car?", he asked.

"No.", I replied.

"Good, we're on the same page.", his retort.

So I asked why all of a sudden he was asking me about purchasing a very expensive automobile, when I just got a new car last December. He said the piece of paper in his hands was one those junk mails and someone is interessted in loaning us $40,000 for a car!

I no longer read the still many junk mails that arrive in our mail box every day. I do browse at the ads though. Those I could use. But banks offering loans, not really. I don't want to be more buried in debt as I already do with my mortgage :)

Back to American Idol, early in the season my dear brother commented how despite Jessica Sanchez's talent she will not win AI. He said she will not get public support.

I agree with him, although I wish that we were both wrong. On Monday night when they showed the contestants hometown support, I was dismayed to see that Jessica's support is not the community of San Diego but only her family - extended family yes. But no one can win with just family support, not American Idol.

Thus it was a real shocker to learn that she landed in the bottom three and a bigger shock when she was the one with the least amount of votes. Coming in to the show last night, I had the feeling that the SAVE was going to be employed, regardless of who gets the boot - unless it's Hollie, I think.

So it's back to square one Jessica. And people go vote for her, because I don't vote. I do follow the show, but not as a voter.

Still on last night's AI, I am so proud to see James Durbin's performance, really authentic and so believable. He was my fave on last year's show. Very inspiring to see that he's making good with his career so far. He's a local kid you know, from Santa Cruz.

On another random thought, today is Friday the 13th. This year there are only 2 Friday the 13th and the other one is in July. Are you superstitious about this date? I don't even know what it means why people are wary of this date?

Oh man our travel planning is going really crazy. We chose destination 1. Then we found out that our travel dates don't coincide with the dates on the travel company. So we chose destination 2. The travel dates are in accord with the #2. However, before we can finalize our plans to stick to #2, Travelzoo came out with the weekly deals that made us halt our plans to book #2 and take a gander at this new destination #3. While all this is happening, I got replies from different travel companies about #1. One of the proposed tour itinerary and price really fit our style, budget and travel dates. However, we still pursued #3 because it's so tempting. When we were getting ready to book #3, there were many surcharges that made the "deal" not so tempting anymore. It hardly wasn't a "deal" at all after adding all those "optional tours".

And so after all the phone calls, emails, and headaches (mine) I think we have finally decided to stick it to #1, our initial travel destination. Nakakaloka!

[the picture above is random too, we've been having stormy weather here. lightning and thunder and winds so strong and rains last night.]

Tattle Tuesday

Did you all have a good Holy Week celebration? Or is celebration the right word to use. I don't know. However, it was a busy one for me. As you know we don't really have a time off work for the Holy Week, unless one requests to take a paid time off. It is this nonstoppage of work that was difficult to adjust to when I first came here. Everyone's working on Holy Week. On Good Friday no one seems to be taking the essence of Good Friday. It's a regular work day.


But I wisened up and have since been taking Good Friday off. My mom and I had this tradition of visiting the local churches here. Five in all. But this year we only went to 4 of them and only 3 were open :). And then after that, we went to Chow King. We didn't eat any meat, but still. Oh I feel bad about not giving up my comfort food for the Holy Week. I was very good the whole week because I was only eating salad at lunch or cut up fruits. Yet on the holiest of them all, Good Friday, I had my comfort food, tapsilog. Yikes!


Anyway, it was a busy Thurs-Sun for me, largely due to a lot of church functions/activities in connection with the Holy Week.


Now that's over, the rain has returned, to my enjoyment. There is something about gloomy rainy day that makes me feel good. Besides, we still need water to fill our reservoirs for summer's use. So come on rain.


Oh I am still busy with finalizing our summer vacation. By summer I mean, summer here. We have a date already, July 18 to August 20. I'm going where it's monsoon season I think. I'm going to enjoy more rain!


There was a time while arranging this vacation (nothing has been booked as of this writing) that we considered Thailand as the jumping point. We have 2 destinations for this one-month vacation. However, Thailand is so expensive coming from here. Maybe someday, with God's grace, we can do Cambodia-Thailand combo.


Speaking of more vacation, I have a couple of days off due (our company gives us 2 floating holidays in addition to the vacation time we accrue). We're thinking of using it on our wedding anniversary. Friends of ours, another couple, want to join us. They have Mendocino on their mind. Mendocino is one of my most fave spots, however, it's expensive. The four of us are on a budget. We're thinking about going to the north instead and see some giant trees and visit state parks and beaches. I hope the water is not cold like the central coast at this time of the year. But I doubt it.


And so I'm still plucking away at the computer seeking the best deals I could find.


Meanwhile, I don't think I'd be going to see Hunger Games, because we're trying to cut back on extra expenses. We are even considering putting our Netflix subscription on hold. We do that periodically when we get busy or we go away. We even do that when we feel that we have watched the movies that we wanted. So while we wait for new movies to appear on DVD, we put Netflix on hold. Saves money.


What else? Oh Saturday was supposed to be photography day. I even brought my DSLR, but we got caught up visiting Gay (we brought her Vietnamese spring rolls and banh mi). She is considering joining us for a cruise next year. We told her we have a free cruise due next year anyway and we're thinking about taking another European cruise. I hope she goes with us.


I had my annual bloodwork. Thank God everything's normal. Only one icky is I'm still deficient in Vit. D. That is caused by being cooped up in the office all day. Doctor advised over the counter vitD, but I am already taking multivitamins. So I guess I'll just soak up more sun and seek out Vit D rich foods to ingest.


I am hankering for more Vietnamese food. I hope I can persuade my hubby to go eat out on the weekend even if we're penny pinching.

Happy Easter

3 Down 9 To Go

Here's how March turned out to be for me:

• Watched the following movies via Netflix:  Just Go With It, The Mechanic, Conan the Barbarian, The Adventures of Tintin, Trespass and Footloose.  I've been satisfied with these movies.
• Spent St. Paddy's Day with a dinner with my brother and SIL in a Brazilian churrascaria.
• Went to Happy Hour with a friend, had a lovely time eating and chatting.
• Went to a dinner date with my hubby at Hana Japan on a work night, feeling truant.
• Attended a memorial service for a friend, church was full, a testament to how many lives she touched while she was living.
• Went to the Oakland Museum's rummage sale.
• Watched The Descendants on the big screen.  Oh George.
• Physically, wasn't in the best of health, but all in all it was fine.
• Busy - workwise.
• Took mom to the casino for her advanced b/day celebration.  Ate too much at the buffet, what else is new.
• Cramming to find a vacation destination/package to Asia this summer.

I am thankful for all the blessings I received this month - seen or unseen, known or unknown.