This Is Us Being Spontaneous

We have no plans, travel or otherwise, for the next few months. Nothing. Sad isn't it?

However, we expect to be quite deep into our church's fundraising this summer. So we are clearing our schedules for that - and oh we are saving up for some big vacation - like a 2-week Turkey tour :)

Anyway, my Saturdays are always the same. It's a routine. In the morning, and I don't wake up early either, I have to take my mom out to eat and then run her errands. Later on in the day we do groceries, et al. Not this Saturday. We didn't run our errands after my morning with mom.

Instead we attended my nephew's housewarming party. In all these economic worries, he managed to buy a condo/townhouse. It's a 2 bedroom 2 1/2 baths built in 2005 so it's fairly new. It was foreclosed and thankfully he had 20% down, I wouldn't have guessed. Not to knock him down, but I certainly did not think he was geared towards his future. I am so delighted and proud.

The condo overlooks International Market - across from the college. It's a gated community so it's pretty safe. The 2-storey townhouse has a lovely floorplan that I liked a lot. I went home satisfied after seeing his new digs. Beats the rent he pays for the apartment.

On Sunday, we had church. Afterwards we went home for a little brunch. While chewing, I was also making a list of what we needed to buy at the grocery store.

And then I thought why not drive to Napa. Napa is less than 30 minutes drive from home and a favorite place to go to if we feel the need to go out of the house.

Halfway to Napa, the skies opened up and poured wet blessings on us. I was disappointed because I was looking forward to exploring the revitilized riverfront district on foot. I knew that Iron Chef's Morimoto's new restaurant is in that area. I wanted to take photos.

I told my husband that next time we plan on being spontaneous we check the weather report first.

While we toyed with the idea of making a U turn and watch movie instead, we decided to go ahead with our plans, since the movie tickets were sitting in my computer desk at home.

Despite the rain which was on and off, when it was on it was really pouring, the visit to the riverfront was very nice. Morimoto's restaurant is right there two doors down from Tyler Florence's store. You see these are my name brands. I don't do Dolce Gabbana, or DKNY or Gucci. Those names don't mean a thing to me. What matters to me are Morimoto, Alice Waters (mother/founder of California cuisine, owner of Chez Panisse), Tyler Florence, etc.

Just like those who buy Louis Vitton, I too cannot afford to eat there, but I save up so I can and today was not the day to eat.

We walked around poking into restaurants to see what their menus would be like and how much they charge :)

Went inside Kohl's and grabbed a few shirts, my idea of shopping.

Walked some more and found ourselves in need of some sustenance. We ducked into SWEETIE PIE and had coffee and coffee cake. We found a wonderfully looking chocolate cupcake with almond butter creme frosting that had to be wrapped for enjoyment at home.

The rest of the afternoon went by as we ran our errands. I shall be back when the weather is pleasant and would redo the walk I took.

Sigh

While waiting for my mocha frap at the coffee cart inside the cafeteria, a male nurse came bouncing in and chatted with the lady who owns the cart as she was fixing my order.

He was enthusiastically telling the lady about his 2-year-old son. You can see all the joy and love from his face. I joined in their conversations and he willingly shared more of his son's antics.

As I was walking away from the coffee cart, I felt a bucketful of melancholy wash over me. I cannot share how my little cat Buster would pause biting me whenever I say, NO BITING, or how my little 2-year-old cat Emma knows exactly when she needed to be fed in the morning, that she wouldn't wake me up before 7 am even though she's up hours before 7 am.

It wasn't appropriate to share my love to my cats when he or someone else is sharing about their kids.

Times like this I feel bummed that I cannot conceive - yet.

My Starbucks Experience

My experience here in the United States taught me that people tend to make small talk, polite conversations, usually about mundane topics such as the weather, when in a public place, while waiting for something, the bus, or your coffee. And I liked that. I thought that was really friendly. I don't usually instigate the casual conversation but that day I did.

We were driving back from a pleasant afternoon in Napa when we spotted a Starbucks store. Needing a caffeine boost, we stopped. This one did not have a drive through window. So we went inside. The store was as expected at about 5 pm empty except for two or three people ahead of me in the line. When it was my turn to give my order, I thought it would be nice to chit-chat with the barista. My husband at this time was using the facilities. So I asked this lanky pimply-faced young lad who looked like he's not old enough to drink coffee what they put in my Americano. Cafe Americano is my signature drink when we go to Starbucks. Not only is it priced modestly, I also enjoy its taste, which is very important. I don't go frap or something, I get shocked thinking about the calories in each of those ventis. Anyway, he must have not expected me to say something else outside of my Americano venti order so he asked if I could repeat what I just said. I did. I asked him what do you put in your Americano? The lad found his composure and confidently answered: "Hot water and coffee beans."

My husband caught the last part of this conversation and could not help but give out an audible chuckle at the response. He chastised me; he said I got what I asked for. He said I asked a stupid question so I got a stupider response. Did you think my question was stupid? Maybe I did not phrase it correctly. I wanted to know what combination of coffee beans they use for their Americano, so I could copy that when I brew my own at home.

Enough for chit-chatting with baristas. I learned to just smile and comment on how glorious our weather has been. It's a much safer topic for everyone.

I Can Taste The Difference

Over the weekend, Starbucks introduced its new product, an instant coffee called Via. According to the ads they circulated over the tv, YOU cannot tell the difference between this instant brew and their house brew. They invited people to come to the stores and take the challenge. If you could tell the difference you would get a coupon for a tall house blend on your next visit.

So hubs and I went last Saturday. We were able to sneak it in between running errands because it was near the grocery store that we patronized. So we marched up to the counter and ordered our regular blend brew and we were asked if we would like to take the challenge. Of course we said.

And guess what? I guessed which one was the instant brew. Sadly hubs didn't guess correctly. In his defense, he hasn't had any instant coffee experience prior to the tasting. But I knew the minute the hot, and I mean HOT coffee landed at the tip of my tongue that it was an instant coffee. It tasted like the coffee that my mother loves. I really don't know which brand of instant coffee it tasted like, but I knew it was instant right away.

So I guess, I'm a coffee connoisseur!