A Quick Friday Post

I overslept this morning. If my husband did not nudge me, I would be sleeping until noon. Nope I was not watching the Royal Wedding in the wee hours of the morning. That wasn't the reason for the extra minutes of sleep.

It wasn't Manny Pacquiao's appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live either, which I caught accidentally. I am not normally awake by 12 midnight, when Kimmel's show comes on, but last night I was still up. And when they announce that MP was going to be there, I waited for his interview. My husband asked if he was going to sing again. The last time he guested on JKL he sang much to both our chagrined. That super boxer simply loves to sing. However, last night he spared all of us by not singing. Thanks MP.

Earlier that night, I was unhappy with the AI results. Did anyone see it coming? My ever wise hubby guessed it was Casey (and no he did not peek at Yahoo either - where the results would have been posted since we are always late here in the west coast), reasoning that he had been voted off once before - until the save by judges kept him longer.

Okay so what's in store for the weekend? I am hoping that in between running errands and doing chores I'd be able to sort out photos for posting in this blog since I still have photos from our getaway in Central Coast for my hubby's November b/day and from the cruise we took in January.

Also I am hoping I could window shop (either physically or online) for my much-wanted DSLR. I have lamented previously in back posts how my p&s have been ruined by having dirty lenses. One has been sent out to the company for cleaning (part of the warranty).

Any good movies lately? Oh yeah, I have a Royal Wedding to watch this weekend. I think I may need to pop some corn.

Have a lovely weekend everyone.

AI Talk

I missed two weeks of AI review and this is supposed to be a weekly posting. I have reasons, 1)there were only good performances as the number of contestants dwindle, 2)busy schedule, 3) busy schedule. Well you know what I mean.

Anyway, what can I say? With Pia Toscano's departure, there doesn't seem to be any contest at all - well IMHO of course. I pegged this season to be a mano a mano between Pia Toscano and James Durbin. So it was simply no contest now in my view.

And while I unashamedly throw my full support (minus the voting part) to James Durbin's campaign to be this year's AI winner, I thought that Randy Jackson's proclamation last night of Durbin as winner was ill-advised and in poor taste.

After all, the others in contention are all very good and still strong. Except of course I love the way James Durbin sing his songs.

Take last night's Carole King night, the six remaining aspirants did their best in performing their choice song. Although I may have to add here that two of my least fave perfomances were that of Haley and Jacob. My other fave aside from James' was that of Casey. Boy, was Casey good in that bluesy jazzy renditions. He appeared to be very professional in his performance last night. My husband even thought he got it made. He could perform in some joint and people would pay money to see him.

I would really be disappointed if James or Casey would be eliminated this early. I'm hoping it would be either Haley or Jacob getting the boot tonight.

Speaking of eliminated contestants, I saw Pia Toscano sing while her rumoured bf dance on Dancing with the Stars this week. I cannot remember what the dancer's name. They do look good together. I wonder if Pia would be a celebrity dancer next year for DWTS?

More girl talk.....

Anyone interested at all in the upcoming Royal Wedding? Hassle here in the West Coast as the wedding takes place at about 2 am here. But I am happy to report that our DVR is already set to record from 1 am foreward. I haven't seen the Diana and Charles wedding as I lived in the boondocks back then and had no clue who these people were.

I hope this marriage will last though.

Food Craving Wednesday

My husband, er WE, make this pasta dish that I adore so much. It doesn't require a step to step procedure since whatever veggies are left on the fridge is what we put into it.

We first grill the veggies or sometimes broil them in the oven. Then we add them to the cooked pasta (whatever you prefer) and toss it with some homemade pesto, which we always have. When I go to farmers markets I never could resist buying basil even though I have no use for it. Well there is always a use for basil. We make pesto and freeze it for occasions like this.

We top off the dish with cheese - our choice is feta.


The good thing about this comfort dish is that it can be eaten hot/warm or cold/room temp.

Grab a fork and dig in.

Let Me Tell You About My Weekend

The holiest weekend of the Christian world.

I took a 3-day weekend. Every year, except last, I take Good Friday off. Last year was the exception as I put in my vacay request late. I didn't realize that there were others in my office that also needed a day of meditation :) And only a certain number of employees can be out at the same time and when my request came to the desk, the number has been reached so I didn't take the Friday off last year.

FRIDAY:
As was my tradition with mom since we came here in the US, we went to our version of Visita Iglesia. Near where we live there are 5 Catholic churches that we visit. Three were open all day, the other two were open after 2 pm, but we went to all five anyway and said our prayers.

My husband also took the day off. His situtation is different. He has some days off that needed to be used.

When my Visita Iglesia was over, my husband and I drove to Berkeley to attend the Good Friday service (1.5 hours to 2 hours). The church is next door to UC Berkeley campus so I was suprised to see many students around. Apparently, Cal (the uni's nickname) takes Spring break after Easter.

The service was solemn, this church knows how to do this Good Friday service properly. The singing was fabulous, they have the best choir. It was spiritually enriching to be attending a service like that.

When the service was over, I couldn't belive how famish I was. Then I remembered that I had a little pandesal and coffee so I could take the medicine. I remembered that I wasn't hungry at breakfast but had to take something to go with my meds.

We decided to run a little errand - a grocery store trip - to get the items we need for our little dish for the Easter potluck at church on Sunday. Since we were in Berkeley, we thought it best to go to Berkeley Bowl a little mom and pop grocery store that has the best produce around. Veggies you don't normally see elsewhere you see here. I particularly like their bulk items section.

We went to their second branch, the newest, that is near the freeway and found that there is a little cafeteria inside the parking lot. We went to see what it was all about and saw many people eating. Since we were hungry we decided to grab a little pack of sushi and keep our hunger pangs quiet.

This branch of Berkeley Bowl seems bigger. I enjoyed the salad and antipasti section. We bought a pound of mixed antipasti. Then we grabbed the veggies we needed for our dish and off to home we went.

I was too tuckered out after the service and the trip to the grocery store that I wanted to take a little nap before the 7 pm Taize Service at our church. But when we lay down to nap, the cats jumped on the bed and we got distracted, then Harrison Ford and Indiana Jones was on tv and we watched a bit until it was time to go to church.

A Taize Service is when worship is conducted in singing of hymns mostly from psalm verses. Very solemn and meditative with just votive candles around the cross. Very very nice.

SATURDAY:
Our friends' friends were camping in nearby Sta. Cruz mountains for the weekend. They invited our mutual friends for a day of hiking. They in turn invited us to drive out to the mountains with them. I wanted to go after learning where they camped. It is the very same park that I wanted to visit for the longest time.

The 9 am meet time became 9:30 and off we went soon after that. The husbands were up front and we were in the back. I made sandwiches for the drive. The drive would take about 2 hours, although it seemed so much faster than the 2 hours that took us to get there. Maybe because I am into drives especially if we are passing tall redwood trees, who cares about time right?

But my lady friend sitting next to me wasn't exactly enjoying the twist and turn of the ascent to the mountain as she hurled a few times. I'm not quesy about people barfing, even though the smell bothers me a bit. But this isn't her first time to get sick when we drive on curvy road. She did the same thing on our trip to Yosemite (and we want them to join us on a cruise). We stopped when we see the turnout and she managed to clean her side of the back seat and clean herself a bit. She usually bring another set of clothing for instances such as this. Not this time, but she didn't need it.

Anyway, we managed to find the friends, and their other friends. We went on short hike to different trails - easy one as our friend has a little disability that limits his mobility. We joined them for a very late lunch and found that these friends brought with them their birds (parrot and macau) with them to camping. I thought that was funny. Apparently they never leave these pets behind no matter where they go.

The funny thing is it was a drizzyly cold Saturday both in the mountains and in the valley so I wonder how they managed to sleep under the thin tent. I was assured that they brought enough blankets to cover them, etc.

I did like this park so I told the hubby that I am willing to sleep on tent again especially on this campsite since there is flush toilet and shower a few steps away and one is sleeping under these giant redwoods, what a spot.

We managed to visit one waterfall (the big one is about 13 miles away) and took some photos.

The drive home took us to Half Moon Bay where we visited our usual snack place and gotten some salmon and fish tacos and deep fried oyster - enough to keep us nourished for the drive home.

SUNDAY:
Another 6 am waking time so I could take Mom to her church service at 7 am. The service lasted longer than usual since it's Easter.

Then it was the 9:30 Easter Service at my church. It lasted much longer since aside from the Easter celebration there also was a baptism. Then there was the potluck and the Easter Egg Hunt. I did not participate in both after service activities, since I helped out in clearing the altar. Plus, I had some serious headache attack.

Hubby was on clean up duty so I had to sit in the car nursing a headache. When we got home past noon, we took Mom out to a Chinese lunch. It is in this no frills Chinese restaurant that only Chinese people know about. It is in the new location, still small and all the tables were taken so we were ushered in the back - we even past the kitchen. They have a small set up in the back that my hubby jokingly called the mafia room.

We ordered 6 dishes and paid $40 dollars. That's cheap and food is good, not the American style Chinese food.

My headache persisted all day. I hang dried the laundry then went straight to my computer to work on my project for the church.

My church is holding a big fundraiser this summer. I am the graphics person. I had completed the flyer and the donation letter. My assignment next was to come up with tickets for the event. With hubby's help, we managed to finish this project yesterday and sent it out to the vicar and the one in charge for approval.

And because my headache wasn't going anywhere and not getting any better at all and no amount of acetamenophen or ibuprofen could cure, I went all out and sought the cure that I knew would work:


Well the headache didn't go away completely, but I was happier after taking a full dosage of above meds.

On EMMA mode

I'm tired. No matter how many times I say it today, it doesn't make me less tired. I need a break!!!!

Pen not Ten

Soooo busy with the start of this week - Holy Week.  I miss taking this week off, ala PI.

Anyway, last night as we were getting ready for bed, my husband handed me $10 bill.  I thought he could read my mind.  You see we allot only ten dollars for our weekly allowance - we agreed to that amount - as part of our belt tightening program so we can save up for future vacations or whatnots.

Why did I think he could read my mind?  Because I needed my allowance for this week and I didn't want to stop at the ATM, have no time for that.  But he can easily go since he doesn't have a long commute to work.

How did you know I needed money I asked him?  He said I asked him for it when I called him at work during the day.  For the love of chocolates, I couldn't remember ever asking him to swing by the ATM at all. I know I have some memory loss lately, but this surely I could remember.

When was that I asked him further?  He said, " You told me, don't forget my ten." 

Hahahaha!  I said don't forget my PEN.  Not ten.  And here I laughed out loud it scared the cats.

I liked the pens they have at his work. Our work don't buy those pens because of budget limitations.  So if I need one I ask him to give me one, hence the "don't forget my pen" message.

I think dear husband needs a little visit to the ear doctor :)

Bulleted Thoughts for Friday

Oh one of those days when I cannot string sentences into paragraphs so I'm using bullets.

• First time since I got married that I went to work without my wedding band.  Forgot to put it back on last night after taking it off to wash the dishes.  Something feels wrong.
• Did not do an American Idol recap/prediction.  A combo of laziness, busy schedule, and worry over Emma.
• Emma my tuxedo cat has vomitted in the middle of the night.  What came out was unchewed food.
• Last week we awoke to a vomit near Buster's food plate and assumed it was Buster who overate and threw up. Now we're leaning more towards Emma being the culprit.
• Was observing Emma if she had some changes in eating/appetite (No), behaviour (NO), or her physical well-being (NO).  She's not lethargic at all, although my mother has been noticing that she was. I think my mom may have mixed up lethargy to a cat's laziness.  Keeping my fingers crossed still.
• Really bummed that my 2 point and shoot cameras have dirty lens and I don't know how to clean them.  They are ruining my shots when I zoom to take photos.  The newer one thankfully is still covered by warranty and would be sent for clean up.  The older one is my fave and I think it's on its last legs, but I still want to hold on to it.
• I hope I can save up enough for that DSLR.
• I feel really silly and petty when all I could think is DSLR while two of my friends are having a tough time.  One is in need of a pacemaker, else the next time she passes out she won't wake up.  And the other is caring for her husband who's dealing with chemo :(
• I am going to a free Christian music concert in Berkeley this Saturday. 
• I am looking forward to a little trip in Costa Rica late summer/early fall.  Not booked yet, getting our schedules sorted out so we can start planning and paying for the trip.