Humidity, meet the Bay Area!

I know I am going to talk about the weather. Again! Just humor me. One of the many reasons why I enjoy living here in the Bay Area is the no-humidity factor. Okay, low, very low, humidity. It's not even a factor.

The past couple or so days however humidity made an appearance around here. And in the first week that I got back from Cancun, where it's not only hot, it was also super humid. It's a big deal around here, because we don't get the muggy feel. It is now. When we have temps rise, it's a dry heat, much like desert heat. Which I prefer. I can endure dry heat. I hate sweating like a pig. I'm a big sweater so when it's humid I don't feel pretty at all. I am not pretty, I only feel pretty all the time. Ha, ha, ha!

Almost Perfect Day

I was going to blog yesterday about how sleep eluded me on Sunday and I had to go to work on Monday feeling like a zombie. BUT, a big but, then I got busy like Monday always is and combine that with the heat, then it's a potent concoction that would definitely render the disinterested useless.

It felt like summer here the past three days where temperatures range in the mid to high 80s with clear blue sky. "Please let's not do gardening and house chores today. The day is so beautiful to waste on cleaning the house." That's what I said to the mister as we drove home from church service on Sunday. We have after all did chores all Saturday including vacuuming the car under the 80-degree heat. I almost melted.

He was crazy not to listen to me. I felt he too needed a little break. So we phoned our friends to see if they were game for a little afternoon out. Turned out they were free.

Thirty minutes later we were all driving towards the beach. Our destination was Rodeo Beach at the Golden Gate National Preserve. And you guessed it, we weren't the only ones who thought the beach was a great place to be that Sunday afternoon.

We packed in some munchies and some cold ones, the husbands laid in warm sand, I was walking up and down in my bare feet trying to soak up the heat from the sand while my upper body is cooled off by the cold breeze. We stayed there for about two hours, did not attempt to dip our toes in the water, because going towards the water the wind was blowing really hard, typical San Francisco Bay Area beach weather, what can I say.

On the drive back home we stopped in Sausalito, parked the car, grabbed some ice cream and coffee (perfect combination) and walked towards the waterfront and did a little browsing at the store windows that we passed. Likewise, Sausalito was packed with tourists, 9 out of 10 was walking around the city licking an ice cream cone. It was definitely a day made for ice cream.

Perfect day wasn't it? Almost but not quite. You see when we left Rodeo Beach we decided to first go to one of the lookout points to gander at the jewel of San Francisco - the Golden Gate Bridge - where clear vistas of the bridge only come rarely. We photographed the bridge and the city with excitement of a first-time visitor, which I'm sure the others with us in the vista point were thinking of us as tourists. We posed with the bridge as the background just like any tourist would.

Here's where the wrinkle happened. When I uploaded the pictures in my computer that night, all my photos taken that day, all 268 of them, were grainy. Grainy!!!!! How could that be? I didn't fiddle with the setting. I made sure the lens is clean and free of fuzz. I checked and rechecked if it's set in auto focus and I always either shoot in landscape or automatic. But apparently the camera had a mind of its own and decided to change the settings on me. The hubs swore he didn't change any setting, and I didn't. So it could only be Buster and Emma (the cats) but knowing their thumbs haven't made an appearance yet, that left me no choice but to say the camera did it.

Apparently, the whole day I was shooting in jpeg instead of RAW as I normally do. I was so frustrated. A whole day's worth of photos wasted. Garbage.

The good thing is I live here. I can wait another season or two to time the perfect clear blue sky over the Golden Gate Bridge and have another try at it. Plus it's not like I've never had opportunities and photos of it before. But still I was so stoked to photograph it on Sunday. Another consolation is the fact that I also brought and use my little point and shoot camera, whose photos turned out okay as usual.

Most Productive Weekend, Etc

I'm compelled to write about my weekend, just because it was productive. A far cry from my usual weekends.

This weekend I participated in a 2-part planning session for church we cleverly named Dream and Dine. It's actually a program that the leadership group of our church, of which I am a member, came up with to get the congregation involved in dreaming up projects that the church could undertake in order to foster relationship within the church congregation and the outside community in which we belong.

The Friday night session was aimed at family friendly activity. It was our Ice Cream social night. Ice cream of various flavors were served. As you know when sweets are involved, especially ice cream with nuts and sprinkles and chocolate syrup and whipped cream, people get more relaxed and more inspired to dream of activities that they would like to be personally involved in.

What I found really inspiring about this is that people I did not think would attend such events came. Of course the kids that we pumped with sugar in their system were loud and active, but very fun.

We were able to brainstorm a bit that night after the ice cream tubs were back in the freezer. It was a successful Friday session.

Session 2 was longer, on Saturday from 9 till 2. Breakfast and lunch was provided. As expected my eyes were bigger than my stomach as a piece of uneaten muffin was sitting on my table all throughout the brainstorming session.

Lunch consisted of Kinder's bbq, a feast. I have tried one of their sandwiches before, but not their bbq. The chicken was really good and juicy.

Anyway, the Saturday session was more into making concrete plans for our projects. The entire group chose about 4 projects to undertake. The people were asked to choose which project they would like to participate in and guess who chose parties/music and entertainment program for church and community? Me and hubby both chose to be involved in it.

What was very encouraging about this whole project was the very enthusiastic response we received from church members that came. I hope that the joy they felt at planning would continue to guide them/us throughout the year.

Also happening this weekend was the annual Eat Real festival, more popularly known as food truck fest in Oakland at Jack London Square. I've gone to three of these now. It's only in its fourth year.

Hubs and I went after our webinar on Sunday afternoon. There were quite a few logistical changes this year compared to the two previous years. For one, they kept the entrance to the festival by the hotel free of food trucks. All the food trucks were farther in.

Sunday was the third day and so there wasn't as much people as the previous years. There were newcomers, but some old faithfuls were there. We tried braised pork belly slider and beef pho roll from RICE, PAPER AND SCISSORS. Both are very good, especially the pork belly. We also tried the mac and cheese, where they used garlic gouda cheese. Definitely adult flavor, it doesn't taste anything like it came from the blue box. There was this thing they call knish, which is a spinach potato filled light wrapper or light dough, I cannot determine, but it's definitely fried. It came with two sauces, one is garlic, parsley and green chili and the other is I think something like cilantro and roasted garlic. I preferred the former. It's not my fave.

Also we had the lamb poutine, which is okay. My first time to try a poutine. Anything with french fries is good.

We all washed these down with black currant kombucha.

We got full from eating those but still we wanted to try some so we opted to take the following home: a rice plate from Seoul on Wheels, Korean bbq with steamed rice and vegies with gotchujang, or Korean chili sauce, Argentinian chicken empanada, Acme bread grilled cheese panini. Those we had for dinner at home while we watched the Emmy Awards.

Speaking of Emmy Awards, I'm quite disappointed that the shows I follow didn't get any wins, I think. Well I was tuning in and out but I know that Big Bang Theory didn't get anything. It's all HBO that gets all the good stuff. Why?

Well, I've said too much. Hope all our work week goes well for everyone.

Post-Valentine post

I began my three-day weekend by waking up earlier than usual on a Saturday. The cause? I had Altar Guild responsibilities that Saturday. I wasn't in the schedule, but all new members, three of us, had to meet with the head of the group to learn how to dress the altar for a baptism. Fortunately, we had one that Sunday. It took us about 2 hours (1 hour is the normal prep time for regular Sunday) to polish, wash, and prep the altar.

By the time I got home, I joined my husband for a cereal breakfast (twas past 12 noon). Then it was my weekly duty to drive mom to her weekly errands. When all have been checked on her list, it was time to run my errands.

Foremost in our list was to get another bird. My female parakeet named Scully died on Friday. We arrived to find her lifeless body in the bottom of their cage. It was most distressing to come home and find your pet dead and you don't know why. And especially if it's original mate Mulder also dropped dead a few months ago. Also, without warning. And after the new Mulder - yes we named the replacement Mulder as well - and she are getting alone quite nicely too. But we made that the last thing on our to-do list because we we coudn't get a bird and take her along for the ride while we run all our errands now, can we?

Since it's springlike here, we thought that now is the time to buy a flowering tree for the front yard, one that would give minimal shade and have showy flowers. We were thinking of Albizia (or silk tree) and jacaranda and also acacia. The past weekends we have been driving around town looking for such trees, and we couldn't find then.

We went to this Berkeley nursery that we knew carried a lot of inventory, but also closed early. We went there first and found that all of our choices are in their inventory. We brought the small car so we couldn't take the tree just yet. Also, hubs and I were having second thoughts as to which one we really need to take home. We only have room for one tree. A wonderful dilemma isn't it. So we drove off without any tree in our trunk or overhead, but we knew where to get it next time.

We went to get another bird at Pet Smart. We tried to go to this local guy who has a BIRDS FOR SALE sign outside his house, but his parakeets are still very young and he's not willing to part with them. In a month or two, I think we can add to our brood courtesy of this guy.

We named our new female parakeet LOVE because, well, it's Valentine's right? And as expected Mulder and Love weren't exactly having a lovey dovey time, yet.

Sunday didn't turn out as planned. Tentatively, I planned to take my mother out after church. But we woke up late that we had to skip church. And mother wasn't in the mood to go out. The sky was blue and the sun was out. The weeds in our garden were growing profusely, so it was a no brainer what to do that Sunday. We worked the garden, pulling weeds, and pulling some more weeds. Despite spending about 4 hours in the garden, there is so much more to do, so much more weeds to pull.

It is Valentine's Day after all and that fact wasn't forgotten so after a quick trip to Home Depot and bumping into one of our friends who informed us that she's about to lose her house (so sad, another face to the thousands who lost their homes to foreclosure), we decided to treat ourselves and get a Subway sandwich and a bottle of vino. Yes, we have plenty of wine in the house, but husband said we don't have any that's for everyday use.

So for dinner we had Subway sandwich and a glass of wine while watching some romantic movie on tv. That's how married couples celebrate the day (or just us since we are penny pinchers).

On Monday, President's Day here in America and a federal holiday, we set our sights on a relaxing day. And relaxing for us means drive around town. Our target destination is Sonoma County where we wanted to go and do some tasting at Korbel Winery, makers of champagne and brandy. This wasn't our first time, but the first time was so long ago it seems and the day was bright and sunny and a perfect one for wine tasting.

Along the way, we passed by Martinelli Winery. And on the spur of the moment decided to backtrack and do a wine tasting there too. I didn't realize that this is NOT the same company that produces apple cider. Their wines are good too, I think I liked two of them, both reds. But we didn't purchase anything because the bottles are quite above our price range at about 20-40 per.

The drive makes me relax, so does my husband and the spectacular scenery of mustard blooms covering the vineyards is something I look forward to this time each year. We arrived in Korbel just in time for the free tour to begin. On our first visit, we came in later and so the tour was over. This time, we decided to take in the free tour, which was conducted by a very knowledgeable and engaging fella who took us to the old distellery/winery and old cellar. When the tour was over we were ushered in to the tasting room. In Korbel tasting is free. In other wineries, you have to pay between 5 to 15 dollars per tasting session. In Korbel it's free, or did I just mention that.

I made the mistake of tasting with my stomach empty and I felt the kick of champagne after the first drink. We tasted about 5 different kinds and thankfully there was some chocolate covered butter cookies out and I had about 5 of them to go with my champagnes.

It's not a must to buy something after wine tasting, especially if you didn't like any of the wines you sampled, but if the tasting is free and you liked the wine or whatever it is, then go ahead and buy. We however still have about 5 bottles of Korbel in the house, but didn't want to go empty handed so we bought a small brandy, which would be good for flavoring some of husbands dishes.

Since this is sort of a vacation for us, we took the long way home. And ended up in downtown Guerneville. Our hungry stomach led us to this hole in the wall, mom and pops whose name wasn't in the marquee. We had fish and chips and an order or nachos with jalapenos. While this is a down to earth roadside eatery, the fish was surprisingly fabulous and the fish and chips was not as greasy as the others. I was going to Yelp about this but I really don't know it's name. It is located on Main Street across from Safeway and it's popular for its ice cream and sundaes. I also had a taste of their organic brewed coffee, which was really good.

Our day didn't end there as we stopped by my friend who offered to make us chai and samosa. I couldn't take in any more food. My head was pounding and I was not feeling any better even after the meal. So we didn't stay long at friend's house.

We ended the day by skipping dinner, and watching Olympic games on tv.

The Bridge is Closed

The bridge is closed, an emergency closure yesterday. And today's morning commute was hell. It's a miracle that I got to work just a few minutes after my shift started.

I am lucky in a way. I don't get to drive over any bridges to get to work. I may have the headache and stress related to the jams on this very busy Eastshore freeway, but going over one is adding half an hour to one's commute.

I thought with the bridge closure and the all the local networks invoking the use of public transport or other alternative routes that the Eastshore freeway was going to be a little lighter than normal. But NO! It was heavier than normal with majority of the commuting public making the decision to drive and take an alternative bridge - the San Mateo Bridge - which means that the commuters were driving my route. Yuck.

I knew someone who has phobia of bridges, I mean crossing one. When she worked in the city, she took the train. The train didn't cross the bridge, but went under the bay through a tunnel. Call me crazy, but going under was scarier than going over for me. Well to each his own.