Three Weeks Later

It is three weeks since the last post and roughly 3 weeks since we got back from our vacation.

Lots of things got in the way. There were tons of tv binging. Catching up with the regular tv programs we follow took up a lot of time. Didn't realize that we watch so much tv, that we follow too many tv shows.

And because we were glued in to the tube, I have not completely tidied up my stuff from the vacation. I have yet to locate the earrings that I wore in Europe, minor issue for now.

Thanksgiving came and went. We don't normally do Thanksgiving as a family (my bros and I) so we do that separately. In the past few years we always do the traditional spread, well we try to keep it as true to the core as possible, and invite people who have no plans for Thanksgiving.

This year, a whole 16-lb turkey and all the fixings and there's just us and one friend who decided to share the day with us.

To add to the busyness of the season, hubby's birthday fell on Black Friday. We don't join in the shopping madness and if we ever are going to shop it would be either late Saturday or Sunday.

In the past we use Black Friday as a good day to go for a short drive and typically that drive leads to the wine country. We followed the same plan this year. However, much to our surprise we timed it with the annual Festival of Lights in Yountville. Unfortunately though we arrived late so much so that all the tasting tickets were sold out.

The single glass tastings however were still available so we had a beer for him and cider for me. We have been dying to have some sweets from Bouchon Bakery, but the line was tooooo long, naturally. As much as we hated to walk away from the line, we did. We wanted to catch a bit of the fading light so we could do our fall color photography. We managed to get a bit of shooting until twilight.

Still hankering for some sweets we found our way to one of our favorite stops in the valley, Dean and Deluca. While the sweets was what we came for, I fell in love with the onion and chives cheese that was out for sampling. Now I'm kicking myself for not buying a wedge of it. It truly was delish, very creamy.

On Saturday it was rainy and gloomy and we were driving to Yuba City to meet up people who could tell us about managing small business. That took longer than we expected and by the time we finished it was dark, no way that we could do any more shooting. We thought we'd talk to people then get out and drive to Grass Valley and shoot.

Plan B was to swing by Old Sacramento just to check if the Christmas lights are on. After all, it's been a few years since we were there. And another bonus to this side trip, they have Theater of Lights presentation. What a fun show for people of all ages. Of course it was cold and rainy, but didn't stop people from having fun. We saw a lot of kids (a few adults) wearing jammies, must be something going on that we didn't know about. After walking around, we stopped for a bite and a sip.

Sunday was shopping day and we mostly went to Costco for some necessities. Got a robe and hoodie for hubby and nada for moi. Oh and we were able to replace our tired but still working bedroom tv. I'm loving the new tv btw, plus it was on sale.

Right now I'm writing this with my two kitties cuddle up in bed with me. Take care.

Now That Thanksgiving is Over

Now that Thanksgiving is over, bring on Christmas!

But before that, let me tell you how Thanksgiving went. I took an extra day, Wednesday, so that I had a 5-day holiday, what fun, isn't it?

Spent the Wednesday tidying up the house, vacuum, sweeping, mopping, dusting, all the works. Each time there's an occasion I vow to regularly do a clean up like 2x a month just so the house is always "clean" and when big days come there's only a little bit of dusting or sweeping slash vacuuming to do; instead of this half-day affair. BUT it never happens. The other half of the day was spent chopping and slicing. I was tired.

Thankfully on Thanksgiving Day, Thursday, there was very little thing to do. The turkey would go at the very last hour since we were deep frying it. Nope it is good deep fried. It's not our first time to do this. The skin is crispy, but the meat is super juicy. A crowd favorite.

The mashed potatoes were done the day before; just like the roasted veggies. Since we were deep frying the turkey we decided to do french fries and sweet potato fries.

We had 8 guests; not one is family, at least not by blood. Our family doesn't do a thanksgiving as a clan; we wait for Christmas to do that.

The toughest part of the preparation is not the cooking nor the cleaning; it's the digging up the boxes in the garage to find where the good china is. I wasn't going to serve dinner and use Dixie. In the same vein finding the good utensils was equally hard. Take it from me, mark your boxes accurately when packing for moving.

Anyway, we found the good set. We know that there's two sets because I bought two of them. However I could only find one set. It's a set of 8, good right since I have 8 guests. But that means we have to find something for me, the hubs and my mom to use. Long story short we found a way to complete our table setting.

Friday we stayed in bed till around 12 noon. I was dog tired from yesterday. When the party ended the clean up began and we didn't get into bed until way after midnight.

Initially planned on watching CATCHING FIRE; but when we eventually finished cleaning up from the party (putting back the china et. al.) it was an hour or so before the showing. We hit two stores just browsing. By the time we were driving to the cinema we noticed that the parking lot was so full we drove away and abandoned our plan of watching a movie.

On Saturday our friends took us to a seafood/sushi buffet. I know, more food, so soon after Thanksgiving. I don't know what's going on here.

Then we all went to Costco for a little shopping. We managed to get toys for little kids we have on our list.

Sunday we drove to Daly City to go to another seafood/sushi buffet. What's going on in here?

In recap, my five day holiday was more about food and not too much about shopping. Oh and I need a vacation from this one.

Kidding aside.....I am very thankful. I am blessed tremendously, more than I deserved.

This and That

It has been a busy few days. And I don't mean physically busy. I don't mean application of elbow grease. Just busy. Things around me are busy.

This weekend my aunt from Texas passed on. I found out on facebook. My relationship with that part of my family is sustained by facebook. It's sad I know but before facebook we hardly had any relationship at all. So yes, facebook made it better to communicate with relatives. When I told my mother, she said, "Oh no, we can't go right? Apparently all day Sunday her mind was filled with thoughts of this aunt and her husband, my uncle, my dad's younger brother. I think the spirit of my aunt was visiting my mom.

The news about possible turkey shortage spurred the hubs and I to run to the grocery store yesterday and grab a turkey before they run out. Funny I know. But it's better safe than sorry. The fact that we only have turkey once a year on Turkey Day makes the availability of the fowl on our table on that day much more important. I remember one year for Thanksgiving as we were shopping for turkey we saw a lot of goose. Every grocery store carried so many frozen goose that year. Since we were having turkey for thanksgiving we decided that we'd have goose for New Year's instead, ham was for Christmas. And so when we got back to the grocery stores after Christmas for goose, there were no more goose to be found. We drove around for goose but no goose. Since then, we vowed to buy something when we find it just to be on the safe side. However, we never attempted to serve goose after that failure.

There is another park in Pinole! I mean a park that I like to walk and bbq at. It's mind boggling how one can live in one place for decades and still find something new. I'll be back here bbqing in late spring through summer. It's a lovely spot and there's a walking trail that is perpendicular to the Pinole Creek. We weren't ready to walk the length of it but the trail from the park will definitely lead to the shopping center where there's Five Guys Burger and Jamba Juice, not to mention Chipotle and Peet's Coffee. Will take that walking trail another season.

I had a wonderful day yesterday. I made dinner plans for Tuesday with another couple, and the hubs and I went to dinner at friends' house. We got invited when the male friend mentioned he was making paella. His paella was excellent. He really has talent in the kitchen, I suppose that's why my hubs and him getting along so well. They both love to cook. I promised to have them for dinner someday (they've been to the house for 49ers watch party and bbq) where I'll have them sample Filipino cuisine.

I'm exerting immense patience by not putting up the Christmas tree before Thanksgiving. I think I'm going to fail, because I really want it up by next week. What do you think, early tree up okay?

I'm back and ready to tell a story

I'm back from my 11-day vacation for 3 days now and I'm ready to tell a story. So grab a seat and get comfy. This could get long, very long.

Thanksgiving was a blur this year. I'm thankful for so many things, both the good and the bad that happened this year. The good brought joys to the heart and the bad always come with lessons in life.

Anyway, my plans for Thanksgiving initially were to have a simple Thanksgiving dinner at home. As a family, we don't normally gather for Thanksgiving, only Christmas. Hence I always invite people who have nowhere to go to for Thanksgiving. In the past I have a motley crew of guests.

This year though I was a bit hesitant to extend invitation to friends because I know that I would need to be rested on Thanksgiving because our vacation starts the day after Thanksgiving.

With that in mind I didn't send out any invites, but we had bought all the fixings for the meal including a 20-lb turkey. No way are we able to finish that just us, so I called brother #4 and invited him and his family over a few days before the holiday. I knew his family doesn't do anything on Thanksgiving. That is exactly the reason why I didn't extend an invite to my other family members especially brother #2 who always have a spread on Thanksgiving.

At the last minute however, brother #4 called to say that his daughter and her family are coming over for Thanksgiving and if we would be able to join them. My niece was sick and would need surgery a few days after Thanksgiving and because of this we couldn't say no. I told my brother that I have a whole Thanksgiving feast ready to cook. So I told him I'd cook everything (well technically the husband is the cook) in the house and haul it over his the day of. Furthermore I instructed him not to get any turkey because, well I have enough for everyone.

So that's how our thanksgiving played out. 3 out of 4 brothers came to lunch, we ate with gusto. I marveled at how my nephews seem to have mastered the art of baking. Joe made us wonderful cheese biscuits, he bragged courtesy of Food Channel. Brian made a delicious sweet potato souffle. Even my niece's 7-year-old daughter made a dish. Her contribution to the table was the cranberry sauce. We told her that this year is the beginning of a tradition. She would be expected to make the sauce every single year.

We made a quick exit after a few hours because we were going to have friends over for dinner. We have some food at home and our friends joined us for dinner. They do not do thanksgiving, it's a cultural thing I suppose.

On Friday, brother #3 drove us to the train station; instead of going all the way to the airport by car, we opted to take BART. It's easier that way. Our plane took off on time at 1 PM. After an hour and a half we were landing in picturesque Salt Lake City. It's gorgeous from up there. Another hour later, we were boarding our flight to New Orleans!. We arrived in N.O. around 10 PM, immediately boarded the shuttle to the car rental, chatted with friendly locals at the car rental place who pointed us to the best eats in town we have to try and then decided to drive on local streets instead of the freeway to our hotel because we were scouting for a grocery store. We found a Winn-Dixie (don't have it in Cali) and got some essentials - sunblock, conditioner, lotion, vodka :), and frozen food for dinner.

It was past 11 PM when we drove up to our hotel and checked in. We were surprised at how lovely our hotel was, better than we expected for the price we paid. The parking however was another story, because although they have a parking lot in the back, it fills out too quickly.

We were meeting our friends in New Orleans, they flew in on Thanksgiving from New Jersey. We planned to take this trip together, but didn't talk about the hotels we'll be staying. Turned out our hotels are next to each other. Go figure.

On Saturday while our friends took a segway tour of the city, we decided to do a DIY of the city. We went to the Garden District, drove around ogling beautiful houses, stopping at the famous cemetery and was tempted to join a tour currently in progress, but I didn't want to cheat. I told my husband that we'd shoot and then google for information later.

Afterwards we drove out some more discovering churches and parks and the riverfront shopping area including the Mardi Gras museum. We parked the car a few blocks away and met our friends at the riverfront mall food court. We shared lunch and hurricane (a cocktail muy delicioso), then walked from the Riverwalk to the Mardi Gras Museum, which is a few blocks away. Browsed there, went to the riverfront, took pictures, then decided to walk from the museum to where we parked our car. Turned out there was a thousand blocks from point A to B, however, New Orleans is a walker friendly town and there's plenty to see.

Eventually we got to our parking and we loaded up the car so we could drive them to the garage where they parked their car for the day. But we hit so much traffic that the guy decided to go on foot to fetch the car. He would drive the car to the hotel and we'll meet him there. From there we would take one car and hit the nightlife of French Quarter.

French Quarter is party central. In my humble opinion as a party pooper, it is crazier than Vegas. Bourbon Street filled with people, all with drinks in hand in party mood. We walked around until we found the brewhouse that was recommended to us. There was a wait of 20 minutes so we sat in the bar and ordered 2 of the beer tasting menu, 5 different beers. Then decided to get something else, a cheese plate. By this time we lost our appetites for what the brewhouse had to offer so we cancelled our seating, and moved to next door Hard Rock Cafe. I know it's not our style to eat here. But remember we were with another couple who love to eat here.

I was almost full from the beer and the cheese plate, so hubs and I decided to split an order of fish and chips.

We walked some more after the dinner and then time to go back to the hotel.

Sunday we were embarking on a Caribbean cruise for 7 days. Check in starts at noon. We woke up early to see the sights. Being a Sunday the streets of New Orleans were empty. We returned to French Quarter, went to the cathedral and Jackson Square, drove out to the riverfront and French Market, then plugged in the city park in our GPS and drove around the beautiful and spacious park with old oak trees that have long graceful limbs. We saw a wedding under a picturesque oak tree, very romantic.

Then the hubs dropped us off at the port while they returned the cars. This gave us girls a time to chat. Here's the deal. I've known this couple for a very short time. One day to be exact. I knew them for one day 3 years ago in another cruise. We went on a day excursion with them in Cairo visiting the pyramids. We were in the same Mediterranean cruise. That excursion consisted of 11 people including us, 9 of which are our facebook friends. So via facebook we kept in touch; hence we were able to plan this cruise with them.

Technically I don't know them, because I probably have exchanged a dozen words with them prior to this trip. But from the very beginning it seemed like we were old friends. There was no awkwardness, only catching up, can you believe that?

So the time we were waiting for the hubs to return, we chatted furiously and shared future travel plans.

The hubs returned and we got checked in without any hassle. Now off to the cruise.

Will tell you all about it soon. Needless to say, I need a vacation after the vacation because I'm very tired :)

I'm Thankful

Catching Up

Let me try to catch this blog up with what's going on in my offline life.

Seasonal cooling has begun shortly after the clock turned back an hour. So now it gets dark really early. The cooling feels so good especially last weekend as I was doing my errands the breeze was cold and there's definitely the chill in the air associated with the season.

Also had the second offering of our Monthly Night Out program at church where I am a member of this committee. My husband co-chairs the committee. For our second monthly night, we had GAME NIGHT. People come with board games and we spent the night, well at least 2 hours, playing games. Every event is with a meal and this time around we had sausage and salad with spiced apple cider. I played uno and jenga. There were a group that played monopoly, another cloo, another scrabble, and blanderbash I think it was, and also chess. It was a fun night.

Last night we went out for dinner. It was Veteran's Day weekend so I had the day off, but hubby didn't. Veteran's Day fell on a Sunday so the town activities were on Sunday, but gov't employees had Monday off.

We went to Curbside Cafe in San Francisco. I throughouly enjoyed my night out with the hubby. We met up with another friend and her hubby and their two boys. We weren't seated together in one table, because of the fine prints of our dining vouchers, but that didn't matter anyway because the place was very cozy - small - we were like dining in the same table.

The decor was Parisian (it's a Parisian bistro), very quant and charming. I totally adored it. The food was excellent. I have to do a separate posting for this here. I'd love to go back to that restaurant.

The dinner ran long and we were late at our church meeting. We barely made it to the meeting. We probably sat for the last 20 minutes of the meeting.

So that's what's been happening. I have so many things in my plate right now. And as usual my lack of time management is making it extremely stressful on my part to handle this time of the year.

I'm about ready to pack my bags again and travel. But first I'll have to help hubby fix Thanksgiving Dinner at home.

I'll tell you more about my trip in the coming post. My flight won't be till after Thanksgiving.

See Why I'm Grateful

So much beauty around us.

Grateful

I'm always grateful for the emails I get even though many of them are forwarded inspirational or humorous messages from my friends. I read them all whatever they are and I keep them in my inbox.

A few minutes ago, I opened my email and saw this solitary email in my inbox. It's a wonderful prayer/poem. I'd like to share it with all of you.

A General Thanksgiving


Accept, O Lord, our thanks and praise for all that you have
done for us. We thank you for the splendor of the whole
creation, for the beauty of this world, for the wonder of life,
and for the mystery of love.


We thank you for the blessing of family and friends, and for
the loving care which surrounds us on every side.


We thank you for setting us at tasks which demand our best
efforts, and for leading us to accomplishments which satisfy
and delight us.


We thank you also for those disappointments and failures
that lead us to acknowledge our dependence on you alone.


Above all, we thank you for your Son Jesus Christ; for the
truth of his Word and the example of his life; for his steadfast
obedience, by which he overcame temptation; for his dying,
through which he overcame death; and for his rising to life
again, in which we are raised to the life of your kingdom.


Grant us the gift of your Spirit, that we may know him and
make him known; and through him, at all times and in all
places, may give thanks to you in all things. Amen.

Today I'm Thankful for...

My post yesterday was about how thankful I was for winning concert tickets. Later that day I was reminded again that this is Thanksgiving week and a few months earlier I was planning on posting my daily thanksgiving post. Too late for a whole month's edition, right? So I'll just make do with daily gratitude for a week.

Today I'm grateful for the unexpected free coffee from the chief of our department. At about 4 pm I went down to the coffee cart for a little pick me up and I found him there getting his chai. He was just putting in his order when I showed up and before he could finish his order he said without hesitation --- and whatever she's having.

He certainly made my day. It wasn't just a cup of coffee, it also meant my budget for the week went a little further. I hope I'd be able to pass this generosity on to someone who most need it.

I Won! I Won

After years of lamenting my lousy fortune at raffles and other contests, I finally won something substantial. Ok, many moons ago I won a tee shirt. But I found out about it much later on so when I contacted the company that hosted the raffle, they said the time claiming prizes has lapsed. So that didn't count.

This time around it counted. Last week I was notified via email that I won a contest for a Pink Martini concert tickets. I don't know who Pink Martini is. If you don't either, just google them. The email also mentioned that someone would be contacting me for claiming info.

A day later the info was left on my answering machine. I was to go to the box office of the venue, which was Paramount Theater, the wonderful art deco style theater in Oakland, and collect my will-call tickets.

What a great thing, isn't it? So my husband and I decided to make it a date night. The concert starts at 7:30. Oakland is 20 miles away. We left by 5:30 - 5:45 and headed to Chinatown which is near the venue. Parking took up a few minutes to secure, street parking that is. Then we went to a Vietnamese place where we ordered Singapore noodles and some Vietnamese noodles. My apologies I cannot remember the "actual names" of the dishes. The Vietnamese noodle dish is the one I like and order all the time, but the Singapore noodles take a little bit of getting used to. I cannot marry the curry flavor with a noodle dish, sorry. One of my many many flaws is my inability to totally embrace the curry flavor.

When we reach the venue we found street parking, 2-3 blocks away, and the will-call and box office line was long. But we managed to get the tickets in the least amount of time. The theater is really opulent. I'll have to go back and see this theater in a tour or something.

The line to get some refreshments/beverages is long that we decided to just abandon that when 7:30 came around.

We have enjoyed great music via a 10-piece orchestra. Global music I think one said is their forte/genre.

Unfortunately it was a Sunday night and we had to work today so we left during the intermission. While we both wanted to stay and finish the concert, we knew that we'd be paying dearly Monday if we did. So old fogeys that we are we left for home.

I'm so glad I finally got to win something. One of the many things I'm thankful for.

Thirteen More Reasons To Be Grateful For

I did it again! I started something and did not finish it on time. What you ask? I started to jot down my daily thanks and I stopped at November 17. My excuse had to be the many demands on my time during this Holiday Season.

Allow me to complete the list:

I am thankful for:

1. The deep fryer that went on sale 2 weeks before Thanksgiving.

2. The turkey that we deep fried on that deep fryer.

3. The gorgeous cold Thanksgiving day.

4. Spending the day with friend and family, eating and drinking.

5. Attending my first Charles Dickens Christmas Fair at Cow Palace - a real treat for an anglophile like me.

6. Long scenic drive to the central coast.

7. The picturesque town of Cambria.

8. Spectacular sunset at Cambria.

9. Superb dinner at Robin's in Cambria and lovely dinner at Manta Ray in San Simeon.

10. Wonderful service at Robin's in Cambria and Manta Ray in San Simeon.

11. Patricia/Prativa at Quality Inn in San Simeon.

12. Chance to revisit Hearst Castle.

13. Nature sighting in San Simeon.

14. Walking on the almost empty beach in San Simeon.

There I even have one bonus item to be thankful for. Needless to say there have been many many small things to be thankful for and I hope that I would be mindful of all my blessings from now on.

SHOPPING

Did you go shopping for Christmas yet?

I stayed home on Black Friday. I was too afraid to leave the house and face the mob aka hardcore shoppers.

Hit the mall and stores on Saturday. Was shocked to see the mall nearly empty. Not really a sight I expected given the fact that most of the items were on sale, and I was told that the same deals that could be had on Black Friday was available to shoppers on Saturday. So I completed *fingers crossed* my shopping list.

Last night, we visited our garage. Since we dumped a lot of boxes there when we moved 1.5 years ago, I was too scared to go there (kidding). I have most of my belongings still boxed. I may never get to see my DVD collection ever again - they are in one of the unmarked boxes in the garage.

But last night we went there. Husband knew which boxes contained our Holiday gifts - the ones we bought last year. I find shopping after Christmas more productive. We buy gifts/items that do not expire - like massager, or small appliances, and store them away for the next Christmas.

And boy was I suprised at what the boxes contained. We may have completed our list by the contents of the boxes. So glad we shopped one year early for this Christmas!

The tree however has to be put up today or tomorrow. I can't wait to have the tree up. BUT, I don't know how our little cats would react to the glittery shiny balls and ornaments or the flickering lights around it. I'm afraid that one day I'd come from work and see a big mess where our tree used to be :)

How about you, have you put up your tree and other decorations yet?

Are you excited by the upcoming parties and get togethers and all the eating?

It's Thanksgiving Week

It's Thanksgiving this Thursday here in the states. And that means turkey (or ham), potato dish (mashed), cranberry sauce, etc etc.

We will be cooking the turkey deep fried this year. First time ever. We found a turkey deep fryer on sale two weeks ago and it was too good to pass up so we decided to do a deep fried turkey this year. Will let you know how it turns out.

During the Thanksgiving meal preparations, we always make mashed potato, because I love mashed potato. One time we made green mashed potato by incorporating pea puree to color my dish. Not only did I like the visuals, it was great too.  Not sure if we are making our mashed potatoes green this year. 

Since we are expecting only one guest this year, I think we can be less stressed about the cooking.

Happy Thanksgiving every one.