Note To Self

Take time to smell the trees. It's good for the soul.

Sometimes There's Nothing To Say

My cousin was diagnosed with cervical cancer, stage 1 and had radical hysterectomy. She's looking at chemo and radiation. Nothing to say but pray.

Movies Lately

I was reading back some of the posts here lately and noticed that I haven't done one regarding the movies I have seen lately in a month's time.  And so this is that post.

KNIGHT AND DAY:   I saw this on HBO before Netflix so I took it off my queue.  This is a "romantic action comedy" movie starring Tom Cruise and Cameron Diaz.  There is nothing to this movie that is appealing.  Maybe the actors, who are both good looking and trim and fit and have good smiles and teeth.  Other than that the movie was rotten and I'm not just saying that. It had gotten a "rotten" rating from Rotten Tomatoes. 

THE KING'S SPEECH:  Via Netflix.  A well made historical movie about King George V and his battle to overcome his stammering.  Marvelously acted film that gave one of my fave actors Colin Firth an Oscars.  Helena Bonham Carter as Elizabeth the king's wife and Geoffrey Rush as the speech therapist also were recognized for their wonderful perfomance. 

Honestly I thought I'd be bored since historically I am bored with historical movies, but this one was the exception. 

RED:   Via Netflix.  CIA operatives now retired are forced to return to their old habits when one of their colleagues' girl got abducted.  I found the movie funny.  It has some moments in it, but all in all I think this movie is mainly for entertainment purposes. I don't think it has any ambitions to be anything but that and oh to make money of course especially since the casting is fabulous - Bruce Willis, Morgan Freeman, Mary-Louise Parker, John Malkovich and Helen Mirren.  That's a cast don't you think?  I wonder how it fared in the box office?

THE TOWN:   Via Netflix.  An adaptation of the novel Prince of Thieves.  This movie is all Ben Affleck - as the lead actor, director and co-writer.   A well acted movie that garnered supporting cast Jeremey Renner an acting nod for Oscar Best Supporting category.   The movie is about friends from the dangerous streets of Boston who held up a back and taking the woman bank manager as hostage.   When they escaped, they release the hostage, but not before she saw a distinguishing tatto on one of the robbers.  Then the Ben Affleck character followed the bank manager, befriended her and fell for her.    This is the kind of movies I want to see Ben Affleck in. He excels in scenerios like this. 

NO STRINGS ATTACHED:  Via Netflix.  Ashton Kutcher and Natalie Portman in a story of friends with benefits.  I'm sure the movie FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS is 95% similar to this movie.  I found it very entertaining and it actually got my undivided attention.

BLUE VALENTINE:   Via Netlfix.  Critically acclaimed movie starring Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams about a marriage that grew apart - she was bored and he was dissatisfied in their sexless life living in rural Pennsylvania.  I really enjoyed the honesty portrayed in this film.  Scored high marks on my rating sheet.  Plus the actors were superb in this movie.

GREEN HORNET:   Via Netflix.  One word - FUN.

LITTLE FOCKERS:   Via Netflix.  You know I enjoyed it.  My husband and I were laughing at this third installment of the Focker saga.  The critics weren't too kind in their reviews though.

LEGEND OF THE GUARDIANS:  Via Netflix.  Animated movie about owls.  This movie made me really appreciate the joy of owning a Blue Ray player.  And the theme song at the end of the movie when the credits were rolling was really good.  Plus I won when I guessed it was Carrie Underwood who was singing.  My hubby was not buying it that the voice belonged to Carrie U.  Not only did Carrie sang the song, she also wrote it.  I just forgot the title, anyone knows?

GROWN-UPS:   Via Netflix.  An Adam Sandler laughaton!  My husband is a big Adam Sandler fan so we have this, but I must say this one movie is really fun for me too.  Nothing really outstanding, but a good use of your free time.

Good/Bad Weekend

Can't wait for the leaves to change colors!

Poor blog, you are neglected aren't you? I have been really uninspired lately. I cannot string words together to make a sensible paragraph that people would read and understand, hence the weeklong silence.

However, I know I owe you a post so here goes.

I had a busy weekend, interesting really. It was my birthday last Saturday and here's how I spent the weekend.

Got woken up by phone call from in-laws overseas calling to greet me a very happy birthday - they never fail to remember important dates, am so blessed.

Left the house about 11 am and had breakfast/brunch date at Waffle Stop, the one I like to have breakfast at. I've taken my mother to eat here over the years and only last Saturday did I realized that the name of the restaurant was Waffle Stop. You know what I thought its name was all these years? Country Waffles. Duh! The sign says Waffle Stop, Country Cooking. So apparently I mixed up the sign and came up with my own name for the restaurant.

Like always I ordered 2 sunnyside up eggs, a side of hash browns, and wheat toast. My husband went for the omelette. He couldn't finish his order so we had a little to-go box. I knew I could finish that food I ordered. It's the same one I get each time I eat breakfast here. And the same quality of food they serve each time. Plus I simply like the fact that they have the same crew/servers for like forever. I like it when people who do their jobs wonderfully keep their jobs.

It was nearly 12 noon when we got to the church. I had to go there because Sunday was my day to dress the altar and we dress the altar on Saturday for the Sunday service. However, there was something going on inside the church. I had to wait for them to finish; they finish at 12, thankfully.

Then another problem, I misplaced my key to the sacristy. Thankfully, my fellow altar guild member Marguerite was at church meeting with some people about finances (she's also our bookkeeper) so she opened all the doors for me :)

It wasn't a meditative time for me this time, cleaning up the altar and preparing all the items needed for the service because there were a lot of people still loitering about the church.

But I managed to complete the task in the least amount of time.

And then we drove to the city for a little visit to the Farmers Market. We encountered a little jam on the roadway since the Giants are at home, plus it's always traffic in the weekend around here anyway.

We arrived at the Alemany Farmers Market nearly 1 pm and the whole place is starting to shut down. We knew that! But the good thing about coming during this time is that many of the veggies have lower prices so we snag what we need at a discount, which satisfied our budget-conscious pockets.

Lunch was next in the itinerary. From the Farmers Market we drove to the Mission District. I love driving around the city, so many things to enjoy, the architecture, the restaurants that we passed by, the people going about their daily life.

We easily found the place, and luck of all luck, we had snagged a street parking. Of course street parking cost an arm and a leg, but still we got parking :)

Esperpento was the site of my birthday lunch with hubby. We both have dreamt of eating there since we heard of it from Check Please Bay Area, a local show about dining about town. It's a Spanish/Tapas restaurant. When we entered the place (it's a 2-storey), I easily felt at ease. I loved the cool ambiance and the casual atmosphere. Walls were decorated in Spanish plates and posters and there is a clock on the wall showing Spain time.

When we got there there were four other tables that were occupied, the rest were empty, but this was a small restaurant to begin with. It was past 2 when we sat down and read the menu. I love tapas or small plates. It's like having only appetizers. That's what I love. I'm not an entree kind of diner. Give me appetizers and I'm all set and happy.

We first ordered a sangria for moi and Barcelona beer for hubby and we got some tapas:

Gambas ala Plancha - grilled jumbo shrimp
Cazuela de Pescado con Almejas - snapper and clams cooked in spanish sauce
Patatas Bravas - spicy potatoes
Escalivada - roasted eggplant, peppers, and onions
Jamon Serranon - canape of Spanish cured ham on toasted French bread with tomato and olive oil
Estofado de Conejo - rabbit stew

We also ordered a side of rice, which we never touched, it's sitting in our refrigerator right now.

Small plates can easily fill you up, it did us. The gambas were good, but the ones we tasted in Barcelona were superb. The snapper and clams in tomato sauce was wonderful as well. We sopped up the liquid with the free bread they give. The patatas bravas was excellent, I love the spicy aioli. The roasted eggplant was yummy too. The rabbit - well I'm going to say it, it really did taste like chicken. If I didn't know I'd say I was eating chicken. The canape was likewise very good.

Overall, this was a good meal. I would be coming back here if I find myself in this neighborhood someday. Plus all those food and chocolate mousse for desserts and the drinks only came to about $50.

We had to take some home on a to-go box. I was not hungry when we came in, but believe me I ate more than I needed that day.

We left the restaurant and put more coins in the parking meter, left the food in the car, and walked around Mission. Walking around Mission is wonderful, it's like a different place. I felt I was transported to a Hispanic town, it's no longer San Francisco here. It's Mexico, it's Honduras, it's El Salvador. This is a vibrant neighborhood, restaurants next to each other. We walked several blocks for an hour and spotted 2 of the restaurants we wanted to eat at. Now we know where they are located.

In our itinerary for the day, we also included a little sunset watch on the waterfront, but the day was windy and cloudy and very cold I didn't think there was sun all day and I reckoned no sunset to speak of either.

So we went to Chinatown instead. We walked some more in search for a wind breaker. My husband was shopping, I thought it was for him. It was for me for our upcoming trip. I don't need a windbreaker, I'd rather get those cheap ponchos for when it rains.

On the walk back to the car, I found myself in need of a bathroom. You know Chinatown, there isn't any public bathrooms. You have to be a customer. Since we were stuffed still we didn't go to any restaurant, but we passed by a bar and so we ordered a Chinese Mai Tai and I got to use the facilities :) and enjoyed a wonderful libation.

After we crossed the bridge, hubby asked if I wanted some desserts, like the chocolate mousse at the restaurant didn't happen, so I said yes. WE both had this little bakery in Solano Ave in the city of Albany in mind. We got us a little breakfast bun and a slice of brownie. That was worth the drive.

Sunday was church and I got to feed the church members as it was also my day to host coffee hour.

After church, my mom took me and hubby to have some Chinese lunch at this little known place in El Cerrito. Mostly Chinese come here. On Sunday, I saw an African-American couple, us, and a white guy. The rest were Chinese. The food is wonderful, my mom loves it here. We had 5 different dishes, so there were to-go boxes too. But the minute we left the restaurant I started to have a little stomach gas pain. My husband wasn't feeling so well either. Too much MSG probably.

We went to drop mom off then off we went to buy some tools, power tools :) and then it was time for COWBOYS AND ALIENS. If you haven't seen this movie, I suggest you go and see it. It's a well made movie with outstanding cinematography.

The bad part about the weekend? I didn't get to blog at all :(

Street Photography #10

Have nothing to say really, except that July is ending and with that I feel like Christmas would be here sooner than any of us expected or wanted.

And with that sobering thought in mind, I come to reflect on how the summer has gone for me so far. It hasn't really made an impact to me yet. I don't expect it to. Every year I ride the summer months hoping I'd get over it without being too hot and uncomfortable. I know not a good way to see summer.

But summer hasn't really been my favorite season. It's the time when I'd rather be cooped up in the office working those long daylight hours and come home with some light still to do some gardening or just swing the remaining daylight away in my backyard swing.

I have no travel plans this summer. The local beaches would still be cold in the summer time - they are cold all year long. This is California, but not Southern California where the people are on the beach year round.

I've been watching a lot of Netflix lately. However, I am outraged that Netflix decided to raise the price. Currently I have a combo of streaming and one dvd. Last night I changed my setting and I opted to forego the streaming option, since we hardly use that anyway.

I have 6 movies on my queue that I must see before I finally decide whether I'd keep the subscription or simply put it on hold. In the past we always keep it on hold when we go away for vacation or when we get too busy to watch dvds at night.

Well, it's another Friday and I have no plans for the weekend. Wait, I have one. It's not a happy plan, but I am set to go to Alemany Farmers Market in Daly City, which I believe is the oldest and largest in the bay area. I am craving for some Filipino dish. We haven't had any Pinoy food on the table for over a month. It's time I have some munggo and bittermelon.

Have a lovely weekend.

Defeating The Dark Lord and Conquering the Rapids

I went and saw.  I cried and cried. Inside the cinema.  Mostly because the story had concluded or at the time I was shedding tears, the story was reaching its climax.  It's sad when one thing comes to an end - even a joyful conclusion couldn't take the bitterness out of the fact that well there is no more.

However, the movie was indeed quite something.  How long was it?  I heard 3 hours.  It felt like 30 minutes to me.  The minutes flew by and when the credits were rolling I was like, that was it? 

I could have gone for more.  Still, the producers made one of the best Potter films here.  I wonder though if like LOTR this film would take in incredible amount of trophy at the Oscars.  What do you think?  Will the powers that be in the industry look kindly to the Potter series and see what well made films they were?  Or how successful they were and how incredible the story telling was? Or will they dismiss them as simply blockbuster movies aimed at kids? 

Needless to say I loved the movie.  There were minor things in the film that I would have loved to see expounded or further explored, but not having read any books I don't know if they were further explored in the book and shortened on the movie.  Those were minor. 

That was my Saturday. 

And here's how my Sunday went.  I mentioned in the previous post, which is a week ago that we were going to do some white water rafting.  We did.

We met at 7 am at my hubby's worksite, which is 2 minutes drive from home.  We swung by Starbucks first and bumped into one of the guys there also picking up some caffeine treat.

The decision was made to carpool.  Five people in our car and 7 on the SUV.  Twelve people in all.  When my husband was making reservations for this trip they were told that they have to have groups of 6 as 6 per raft is required.  More people wanted to go but not enough to complete 18.

The drive to Gold Country - the place were gold was found and mined in the 1800s here in California - took about 2 hours of scenic pastoral countryside.  We brought sandwiches, but apparently the people in the backseat all had breakfast.  It was a quick drive it seemed.

We arrived at the camp and was surprised to find that camping is allowed here.  The place was teeming with people. It seemed like a crowded Sunday on the river, but the air was festive, all buzzing with excitement.

Chunk - that's his name - approached us and told us to chill for a bit since the trip would commence at 10 am.  He pointed towards the direction of the river and said we could check it out while we wait instead of milling about our cars.

And so we did and found that there were tents up along the banks.  The water however was pretty chilly.  We were all looking at each other fearing it might be too cold if we found ourselves on the water instead of on the raft later.

The guys opened up some cold ones and decided to enjoy a can of brew before starting with the trip.  Then Chunk came around and told us to go to a spot where the life vests and helmets are located and that we should go and get ready for the trip.

There was mandatory talk and instructions given by Chunk.  He is the leader of this group.  It is a huge trip.  A lot of rafts went out that day. 

Anyway, we were shuttled to upriver by what look like prison bus. I was the first to notice it and then someone from our group said the same thing. 

About 15 minutes later, we were pulling up inside a park, like a regional park.  This was our launching station.  Chunk got in the bus and told us to use the facilities since there would be none along the river route. 

Back in the camp we were grouped into 7 and not 6 as we were previously told via phone.  Since the SUV contained 7 people they were boat 1.  There were 5 of us and we needed 2 more.  Luckily there was a couple that signed up for the trip without a group so we absorbed them.  Here lies some misunderstanding via phone registration.  Anyway, the couple, Jennifer and Neal were cool and easily blended with the group.

We were assigned to Derrick, blond, cute, hunky and dreadlocks.  He was also the funnest guide EVER!

The first two hours of rafting was like testing the waters.  There weren't any rapids in this part of the river.  We were simply rolling on the river on a lazy Sunday with temps in the 90s and the water below us was at most I'd say 60 F.  We played games while we were floating.  He would ask one to stand up and balance himself on the side of the raft ala Karate Kid.  We played more games.  He would push people randomly into the water to "cool off" he says.  All in good fun.  Our raft was always noisy full of laughter.

Then we stop for lunch.  Lunch consisted of burgers, chips, and fruits.  The guides prepared them.  There was a camp kitchen and all the guides manned different posts and started grilling and fixing lunch.  The burgers tasted really good in this environment.

Away from the water, we could feel the temperature had really risen.  Our skin burned where the sun kissed it.  It was up in the 90s for sure.  Luckily for me, it was dry heat.   The way I like my hot weather.

Our afternoon ride commenced soon after lunch was served.  This is the part of the trip where we would be conquering some rapids, the Satan Cesspool, the Hospital Bar, and one more that I can't remember now.

While we were rolling onto some smooth river water, our guide continued to give us some tips on what to do.  We would practice them on his cue so the next time it would come up we would know.

Just like this morning's ride, there was lots of water fights between boats.  In the morning run we were catching up with boat 1 where our friends are and would splash water onto them.  I drank lots of river water because I was in the line of fire whenever another boat would splash us with water.  There were lots of rafts on this day.  One contained many kids and they play splash with us.  The other guides would abduct people from one raft onto theirs.  It's called piracy, or pirating here.  What fun.  The kids on the other hand would yell at our raft and say, TAKE ME!.  We took 2 kids and kept them for a while.

Now to the rapids.  Well, they were more manageable than I ever imagined.  They were big, but not big as I've feared.  Probably because this was a run for beginners as well as experienced rafters.  With all the kids in this trip, I'm sure they wouldn't allow them if this run was dangerous, right?

Anyway, 2 of our friends were thrown out of their boat when they shot the rapids.  We all laughed at how they could have done that.  Anyway that is a possiblity.

All in all the day of rafting was fun.  Three rapids and all successfully conquered by us.  We have pictures to support this claim. 

However, I had the fright of my life when Derrick suggested we play another game that afternoon.  All of us would rise up and stand around the boat and lean back as far as possible.  The object is to fall back into the river with the raft floating empty and we'll all go swim back to the raft.

There is one hitch. I don't swim.  My husband doesn't swim.  Sokny doesn't swim.  The minute I landed on the water I panicked.  Water was coming into my mouth but surprisingly I was floating, just like Derrick said.  The vests are designed to make you float.  And then my husband reached up and grabbed my hand and hand in hand we floated on the river on our backs and from that position I could see our group starting to go into the raft.  We floated quite a bit and then when the raft came close to us we got pulled up into the raft.  That was scary but fun as well.  The cold water took away the 90-degree heat.

That was one heck of a trip. 

Later back in the camp with our dry clothes on, the people on the other boat told us that we were the party boat.  We were continously laughing and having fun and our guide was very cool and super fun, unlike theirs who only lecture about the river :)

Before heading back to the Bay Area, we stopped to get some brew and chow at a local dive next to the photo place where we could order our shots.  I'll show this adventure on my photo blog one of these days.

All in all it was one heck of a weekend. 

Another Work Day Is About To End

I don't have anything in particular that I wanted to share today, hence the title of this post.

I have been getting lazy with blogging lately - err only this blog. The other blogs where I post mostly photos are all up to date.

I guess I'm trying not to whine too much online that's why I'm shying away from this blog.

Let's see what has been happening lately.

Well, my niece came over last Sunday with her brood - 3 boys - and the youngest Alex - almost 2 - used to be afraid of my little Buster. Alex I was told could get along with dogs, but with cats he had a problem with Buster. Until last Sunday. They played together and apparently the boy learned that he is the superior specie and exerted his powers over the poor cat. But Buster was all sport about the whole thing and played with the boy and did not bite him at all. Buster likes to bite me and my husband playfully.

Speaking of weekend, it was a lazy one. I had my monthly visitor at that time so I was lazy and crampy as hell. On Saturday though, I had to go out and take my usual Saturday date with my mom. She loves to eat at Chow King - their palabok is her favorite.

My brother takes her out on Fridays, but he doesn't like Chow King and so he takes her to Jollibee. Mom doesn't like Jollibee :)

I like Jollibee especially when I'm craving for the super sweet Pinoy spaghetti. But Chow King's chicken meal is also as good - in my opinion - as the ones in Jollibee. Just my opinion.

Also this weekend was my brother's (#4) birthday. He with his wife went with brother #2 and his wife to Vegas. Brother #2 issued me an invite but I was not ready to go to Vegas, financially and emotionally. However, we are planning a Vegas trip sometime in the near future. I haven't gone away (pasyal-pasyal) with brother #2 for a long time - since I got married I think.

Anyway, this Sunday we're having a little adventure, sort of. WE signed up for a trip to shoot the rapids. I am a little nervous because I don't know how to swim. Let's see what happens. Do it once, check it off your list and move on to another. It's not on my list, but my hubs said it looks like a fun thing to do with friends. So we're doing it with about 10 friends of ours.

And while I am really excited to see the Harry Potter movie, I am also not racing to the theatre to see it. I'm afraid that once I've seen the movie, then it is final. The series had ended. Until then, I can still say there is Harry Potter left in the future.

Now that the final movie has been released, I can probably go and read the books. I have told myself that once all the movies had been made, I would read the books. I didn't want to read the books while the movies were being filmed because I want to get one side first, the movie side and then hear what the book side has to say. I don't want conflict, in short :)

How was the HP movie?