One month later.....

Here I am nearly a month later. Honestly don't know how I was unable to post at all during that time when I was religiously and regularly posting in my other blogs.

I'm writing now and I still don't know what to write.

It's May now and April just flew by. The past month just seemed to be filled with activities, or you may call them chores :).

A few hours ago we just had our first bbq. Had a few friends over and had a wonderful day. The day turned out to be a bit breezy, but nothing like breezy like yesterday. I overate again, lamb skewers, kebab, steak, korean bbq-marinated chicken wings,grilled veggies, potato salad, etcetera etcetera.

Yesterday we were invited to Fundraiser for a choral group. A friend of ours is a member of the group, we saw their concert last month, and so he paid for the whole table and invited couple friends of theirs. When we got invited I asked what the dress code was and I was told it's Cinco de Mayo so anything Mexican. Idiot me, I borrowed my mom's Mayan traditional dress and wore it for the fundraiser. On the drive to the venue I was having second thoughts. I knew right then that I made a mistake of dressing up. But we were too far from home to turn back and change. Besides I thought no one knows me anyway.

Well I was right, no body dressed up in Mexican attire. Well there was one. Everyone else was wearing casual dress. Anyway, our friend said to me, "You were not kidding, you do have a Mexican dress!"

Since it was a fundraiser, there were both a silent auction and a loud (live) auction in addition to a raffle. One from our table won in the raffle, after she proclaims she never wins in raffle (that is aside from the one she won at our church fundraiser). The one item I bid on silent auction I won because no one else wanted it. It was a handmade earring. The hubby bid on several items, but won a set of bone china tea set made in India.

Well I guess this is all for now. I'm all too preoccupied with planning our fall travel. BTW when we mentioned about our plans for fall, a couple who were in the bbq with us seemed to be interested in joining us. I like the couple, so it should be fun.

Last Day of March, First Day of Baseball Season

Or a whole lot of randomness:

My mother had another milestone birthday last Saturday. A good number of the grandchildren were in attendance, even after her favorite grandchild commented, "Only grandma can invite a day before the event and expect everyone will show up." Well that was my fault, really. My mother wanted to celebrate her birthday with just her children, all five of us, but my brothers didn't know about this wish. Only I know what she really wanted for her birthday. However, I cannot let that happen. How can she have a birthday without her grandchildren and great grandchildren in attendance? After all we hardly get together in one place aside from Christmas day, so I sent out an email and facebook messaged grandchildren of the plans after I heard from my brother that he reserved a place for us at a local buffet. Mother wanted to eat at buffet. Well, that's her only vice and joy to eat out every week. Sometimes, twice when I happen to take her on a Saturday and bro #4 takes her out on one of the weekdays.

And so when we arrived at the restaurant after braving the strong downpour she saw her grandchildren at the entrance first. So I whispered to her, "Everyone is here."

It turned out to be really good day. The restaurant gave us two hours to eat and eat we did. Then we all came back home to have cake and one of the grandchildren brought ice cream. Then there were card games for the adults, card games and board games for the younger set, and a whole lot of running inside the house and chasing by the much younger set (great grandchildren).

I made tea three times and we put coffee on once. When only my brothers and one sister in law were left because they were still playing cards, I made pizza and heat up the meatballs I made the previous night so they can nibble while playing cards.

Moving on....there isn't much going on with me. Work is pretty busy so far. My tv shows are quite interesting. I have gained two new addictions - Crisis and Believe. But I'm catching them via On Demand on the weekends.

What is most anticipated is the start of the baseball season today. The Giants are playing the Diamondbacks tonight. Hopeful that they would be competing when September comes, isn't that what's first day of baseball is all about?

On the homefront, my dear Emma celebrated her fourth adoption day (GOTCHA DAY) on Sunday and of course she had treats and lots more treats whole day long. Now she's back on diet :)

It's been raining, so it's fun. At least it helps our very dry state. I wish there would be more storms coming up.

So until next time.

A week later

What a difference a week make, huh? Last post a week was telling how I was rushing to get all my cards replaced after I "lost" my wallet. Well, after that crazy Friday and the weekend, the rest of the week went by without the thought of the lost wallet crossing my mind, until about Thursday I believe when I realized that I had another bank card in the wallet. I knew that stressing about it that time was not productive so I just let it be. The account was the one I had when I was single, so there's hardly anything there. I just use it when I want to splurge on a cup of mochachino or something.

Anyway, the story about the lost wallet didn't end there. On Saturday, as we were leaving to go shopping, the hubby took the driver's seat, we were in my car. And the minute he opened the door the wallet was there. It was just there. On the side of the seat.

WE LOOKED throughout the whole car, on several occasions. The hubby LOOKED more than once and he's very thorough. So the only explanation left about the wallet is if it's hiding you won't find it until it's ready to show itself.

I let out a humongous laugh that went on for minutes it seemed. The sound of relief! Afterwards we spent the whole afternoon shopping. I finally got the piece that would complete my outfit for hubby's company's party in a couple of weeks.

And, we even got a good foot/neck/shoulder/back massage. What a great Saturday.

Now for Sunday.....

I've been teasing the husband about how he cannot do spontaneous. Trips are always planned way in advance, dining outs are well thought of and planned as well. So it was good to see that we began the year with a spontaneous trip to Pacific Grove, 2 hour's drive away. The Monarch butterfly sanctuary in Pacific Grove had some butterflies and are ready for sighting.

Up until yesterday, I had the impression that Monterey was about 4 hours drive. 2 hours drive is nothing on a day when everyone else seemed to be watching the hometown team, the 49ers on TV, so the roads were clear.

So we went to look at the butterflies, sipped organic coffee and ate yummy cookie at a coffee house cum bookstore, walked up and down the downtown area stopping at restaurant windows reading their menus, ended up taking rock fish quesadilla and thai spice wrap to go for a picnic on the waterfront where we were joined by birds and friendly squirrels while we chow down our delicious meal outdoors on a sunny day.

Then the spontaneity didn't end there. On the drive home, we stopped at Capitola, another fave spot, for a bit of sunset shooting.

What a gorgeous spontaneous day!

Twas a lovely weekend altogether.

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?

Another Week Later

I had a horrible dream yesterday. It's almost a nightmare. I woke up (twas 5 am according to the clock on my bedside table) with my heart racing and I was feeling very very hot. The former is attributed to the almost nightmare, but the latter was because I was buried under a blanket, a quilt, and a throw and two cats. Both cats were snoozing on top of my legs and feet. The throw is our futile attempt to have a hair-free quilt. Except that the cats when we're not in the bed like to burrow under the throw and sleep on the quilt. I don't know why we keep the throw, but it's still there. Minimizing the amount of hair that goes on the quilt.

I finally got around to eating Vietnamese food yesterday. You'd think I was pregnant by the rabid craving I have for this Vietnamese dish (vermicelli bun - like pho without the broth). And I only want to eat it at this little hole in the wall, no frills Vietnamese-Cambodian restaurant. Glad hubs wanted to eat as well.

And speaking of Cambodian, a Cambodian couple mistook me for another Cambodian. Now I've been mistaken for a Thai, Indonesian and now Cambodian. Without a doubt I definitely have Asian features.

And also we have finally cleaned out the other half of the garage. It's not completely clear and clean, but there is more leg room in there. We need more shelving and hooks to hang the bikes and the ladders.

I'm also seriously considering putting up Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Our neighbors already have lights up, not lit just yet, but up just the same.

In addition, I have completed my Twilight Saga books. This weekend I found ECLIPSE at a Goodwill Store. We dropped off some donations and then stayed for a little browsing. Got some items including a kitty mug set and the Eclipse copy for $2.99. So I started to read it. But too many things got in the way this four-day weekend that I haven't gotten past the first chapter yet.

One more thing I think I've forgotten to mention in the past posts, I baked scones. They were good. However, there were some errors in execution, so I'll try again. My niece came and tasted the cookies while I was out and when I got back and she was still there, she knew they were scones. So this is definitely very encouraging results. I shall try again.

In the same night while I was busy making scones, the hubby's project was home-made Mexican tamales). Oh they were good, a tad dry but they were good.

Until next week (kidding).

Happy Father's Day

No celebration today. My dad has passed and my hubby is not a father yet. But the day is so pleasant that after church and after helping an elderly lady friend of ours we met up with friends of ours with their two kids for a little hike. We hiked here (photo taken rom another visit, a year ago)



In the photograph, the grass is still green, now it's all brown and we saw signs of controlled burn. We even hiked higher, farther, and longer than ever. It was really a nice alternative to just sitting in the couch watching Lifetime Television for Women.

No kidding right?

So the 6 of us went from one hill to another enjoying a clear day giving us all access view of Berkeley, Oakland and San Francisco. What a nice day.

Then one time we went farther and knew we had to backtrack a bit because we went too far and our cars are like two hills away, hahahaha. But we didn't want to backtrack, because that's a long way. Instead there's a very steep short cut so we took it. I suck up my fear of heights, some of the trails are really narrow and one slip you'll tumble back down. We were high up there. I'm so thankful that my knees didn't wobble in fear. Well, it must have been the presence of 5-year-old boy J who made me summon some courage to finish the descent despite some scary patches in the trail.

We started at 4 pm, came down at 6 pm so that's a good two hours climbing. Then we decided to cool off a bit at the little beach nearby. It was 8 pm by the time we got home. A worthwhile Sunday it is.

This is just me talking.

We are just into the 5th month of the year and I'm already on my second bout of colds. Yap. It's not going to be a fun year, will it? Last year I was thinking out loud how I've managed to be colds-free for a number of years consecutively. I remember the last time I was in bed nursing a cold and fever - flu - it was the year 2000, yes it was that long ago.

This year, I already stayed in bed because I was too sick to get up due to colds - sore throat, cough, body aches, low-grade temps, chest and head congestion. I refuse to lie in bed this time around. So here I am. But to be honest, I feel horrible.

Change of subject to a more cheerful one. Our weekend was fun. On Saturday my mother freed me from my duties to drive her around while she runs errands, which she does on a weekly basis. She also runs errands with my brothers, but I have to drive her when it's my turn, which is Saturday. But this particular Saturday, she was a little under the weather, arthritis is acting up and walking is a pain in the ass, so she decided to sit it out.

As it turned out, last weekend was the first weekend of the month, which is when Bank of America sponsors free museum days. We've been wanting to infuse some fine arts and culture into our life once again, so we hightailed it to the city on that beautiful warm sunny day.

My bad because I didn't jot down the addresses of the museums we planned on visiting (Legion of Honor and De Young Museum). So when I put search Legion of Honor in my GPS, it took us to city college Legion of Honor. Who knew there were two Legion of Honors in the city. Turned out that the complete name of the museum is California Palace of the Legion of Honor. Whew! That's one long name to enter into the GPS. But we managed to find it and also find a parking spot. Truthfully though, without the help of the GPS, we know where it is and we know how to go there, we just want to see if the GPS can find us a quicker way to get there.

By the time we were entering the museum, the fog has arrived and overtook the neighborhood. Gone is the sunny warm upper 70s just an hour ago. We took cursory look at the exhibits, but it was the same things we saw before and artworks didn't keep us there. I didn't even entertained the thought that I might be taking pictures for the sake of a blog post.

What I was aching to photograph was the newlyweds having their photo shoot by the portico. I really really wanted to photograph them, but well I exercised supreme restraint on my part. I don't want to be rude and ruin their moment.

From here we drove to the Golden Gate Park where the De Young Museum is located. However, the park is closed off on weekends in some areas for sole use of pedestrians and bikers and rollerbladers, which meant we were to walk about 15-20 minutes from start of the road closure to get to the park. It was a good walk, but the wind by now had picked up and it carried with it cool breeze. Thankfully, I always leave a little jean jacket in my car for such emergency. My husband wasn't thinking ahead as I was.

At the De Young Museum, we only had one thing in mind. While the general admission was free courtesy of BofA, the special exhibits were not and we did not flinch when we paid the admission to see THE GIRL WITH THE PEARL EARRING and other collections that belong to Mauritshuis, the museum at the Hague. The collection is here while their home museum is being renovated.

The entire collection is amazing. Rembrandt and his co-horts paintings were incredible, but the centerpiece of the collection is the one called the DUTCH MONA LISA. It's really well made, beautiful. As a shortie, I managed to squeeze in and stand in the very front staring at it, and being in awe of the beauty of the painting.

I have a problem with paintings in general. Why do I have to stand there, look at the painting and think what the artist was thinking when he painted it, or what he was conveying. I do not like that.

This is why I like photography. If you look at a photographer's shot, you stand there, look at it and make your own interpretation of the photograph. That is why I prefer photos over paintings.

I simply don't have time and knowledge of the arts to fully comprehend the artist's interpretation of the piece. Having said that I spotted a Salvador Dali - I believe it was at the Legion of Honor - that I truly enjoyed.

We were cold and hungry by the time we reached the car, despite walking for 15-20 minutes. Then we remembered the little bakery/café we stumbled upon a few months ago in Balboa - the Cinderella Bakery and Café. The suddenly cold weather was asking for a bowl of hearty and piping hot solianka.

Again, we don't exactly know where it is in Balboa or what the nearest cross street is, and we plugged it in the GPS, found ourselves driving towards the water. Who knew Balboa is such a long street. I think its from one end of SF to the other end, which is the water.

Anyhoo, we found it, parked a couple of blocks away and found the place packed with hungry patrons. It's a very small place. Two tables inside with a little barstool/bar on one side plus a few tables on the curb. People were definitely enjoying their pickeled eel salad, which I was tempted to buy, but at $10 a tub, I wasn't ready to shell out that money for something I might not like. Perhaps I should have asked for a taste.

Since it was packed and we didn't want to sit outside and freeze to death (although there weren't any seats available), we got our soup to go along with a cup of hot coffee and a slice of cake and a cabbage piroshki.

That was Saturday.

Sunday was for church as usual. Also it was our massage day. It was my first time to have a massage with a guy, always have a female masseuse, but it was no big deal. He was good and the pressure he put on his fingers was just fine, although I was sore the next day.

We capped Sunday with a hearty home-made Mexican dinner of grilled chicken tacos and grilled chicken huaraches. BTW on Saturday before we visited the museums we made a stop at the Alemany Farmer's Market for a little lunch which consisted of a huarache. That's where the inspiration was to make huarache at home. The dinner was not complete without a margarita. It was Cinco de Mayo afterall.

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.

Weekend Reporting

Time for weekend reporting again.

It was a 3-day weekend in this country, well for some people. My dear hubs had to work, they never get Martin Luther King Day as a holiday.

Here's how the weekend went:

Saturday:

• Lunch at China House with Mother.  This is one of her regular go-to places to dine.
• Drove out to Vallejo to get some supplies, like empanadas and puto bumbong from Valerio's Bakery and a stop at Andrea's for some cooked food for Mother. 
• When I finished running errands with Mom, which included stops at a shoe store and grocery store, my hubs and I went food sampling at Costco .  Oh we did some shopping too.

Sunday:

• Church in the morning.   Lunch at a little Cambodian/Vietnamese restaurant in San Pablo where I had to make sure my stomach was full for the sake tasting at Takara Sake.  I particularly don't find sake tasty and only have it when I'm in a Jap restaurant and sake is free with the meal, but I scored this really good deal from one of them (Travelzoo, I believe).  So we bought an extra voucher so we could have  dear friends come with us.  What was very fascinating about this whole deal is that I would not be persuaded to come here otherwise; therefore I would have missed learning about sake making (video show was informative and interesting) and looking at all the instruments/utensils needed in the tradional sake making process.  The sake tasting part itself is pretty educational.  They have menus on what to taste and of course I chose to taste the sweeter variety of sake.  While I enjoyed one or two kinds of sake from the tasting, I don't think I would be buying a bottle soon.  Also included in the package is a set of 3 little bottles of three different sakes.  All in all what a wonderful experience.
• The sake tasting took up most of the time that we're supposed to watch the football game on tv, it being a conference championship and all.  By the time we got home, it was 9 minutes left in the 4th quarter.  Fortunately, the local team, the Forty Niners emerged victorious, which means they'd be playing for all the marbles in 2 weeks at the Super Bowl.  Hubs is thinking of hosting a viewing party for that.  No concrete plans yet, but we'll see.  We're not even avid fans, just casual onlookers, but a party is fun.
• Plans for watching The Hobbit went down the drain after the game, as I felt a bit sluggish after all the sake I tasted/ingested.  Spent the rest of the afternoon and evening in front of the computer.

Monday:

• Our church had a Clean-Up The City program in the morning in connection with the MLK Day as well as the National Service Day (?).  Members of our church as well as high school kids from the neighboring town's High School (the same high school kids that helped with our Tenderloin Project over Christmas and then some) came to church at 10 am and by 10:30 we were all signed up and have our routes mapped and with gloves in hand and the other carrying a trash bag, we walked away from the church to our clean up route.  I was with three lovely ladies from church - Chris, Susan and Margaret.  We chose to clean creekside and the levee side.  But it was really clean, hardly anything was picked up except for cigarette butts.  It was a lovely upper 60s day with lots of sunshine that we felt a bit guilty about not filling our bags with trash because well there wasn't any in our route.  So we decided to veer from our route, which according to the leader of the program is okay, and headed to the little park by the waterside.  I told the ladies that I have spied a group of kids going that way earlier.  I was right, the park was clean as well.  We chose to return to church and see if there are any routes that needed more cleaning.  We chose another one that we had in previous clean up programs picked up the most trash. It was clean, must be another group had finished collecting trash.  Back at the church, our lunch consisting of hotdogs, cole slaw, cookies and potato chips was ready.  The firetruck came that moment to the delight of the children.  The firefighters were very accommodating to the children, they let them climb up the truck, ask many questions, begged to fire up the siren (which they did eventually ONCE).  With food in hand, we all trooped inside the nave and watched MLK speech, which was introduced by our deacon, who was at there when the speech was made.
• Came back home to see the kitties sleeping in the master bedroom (where else?) and decided I'd join them.  Planning on napping with them, but I wasn't too sleepy or tired, so I switched on the tv and decided to check out what's ON DEMAND and thankfully I did because I saw there's a new epi of my show, SMASH.  The new season is in February. 
• Hubs came home from work to say, "Let's go to Happy Hour."  I wasn't really feeling it because I think I may have eaten more hotdogs than I could handle (2), but he was insistent and so we did have a little drink and some nibbles at La Revolucion.  While we had high hopes for this restaurant, Latin/Spanish fusion in this part of the Bay, we were disappointed.  Only judging by the bar bites menu, we will not be in a hurry to return. 

I just realized after writing this down that I ate too much this weekend.  The month is halfway over again, way too quickly, isn't it?

Twas a rainy weekend.

My favorite thing in the world is a rainy and cold weekend where I could spend the day curled up in bed or in the couch watching tv or reading a book or both with both cats in my lap.

The past weekend was rainy and cold, super cold for this California resident. Nonetheless I had to run some errands. No lazing about in the house watching Pride and Prejudice for the nth time.

Saturday started with a trip to the vet for Emma, who had a follow-up after her emergency visit the past Sunday. I found this clinic that's not too far from us that people on Yelp seem to regard highly. So I chose this clinic and made appointments. Unfortunately on Saturday Emma's records from her emergency visit were not faxed over to the clinic despite my phone call requesting said records to be faxed ASAP to the new vet.

Thus, Emma's visit was somewhat limited to physical examinations. The vet examined her thoroughly and talked us through the possibilities of Emma having stones versus just having UTI, if that is what she have so far.

In the end, the vet wrote script for another round of general antibiotics, since Emma was responding positively to the first round. I raised concern about back-to-back dosage, but the vet assured me that it's okay and normal for pets to take antibiotics longer than the humans do.

Upon returning home, mom and I went on in the rain to run her regular Saturday errands, which consists of eating outside (Chow King that time) and getting some supplies (food).

It was gloomy all day so it got dark way too soon. When we got home from the errands, it was very late afternoon and time to just laze about the bedroom with the tv on and the laptop on my lap and the cats bodies touching my legs as they slept.
Sunday again was busy. I really wanted to skip church at least one Sunday, but well I didn't. We got out of church nearly noon and decided to drive to Napa just in case there are still any fall colors left to photograph. Last year we hit paydirt when we drove out to Napa the day after Thanksgiving and saw the valley gorgeously donning fall colors. I knew this time it was a lost cause but the hubby was adamant. I reasoned that it had been raining all week to begin with and add the fact that it's late in the season to still have colors. But he was unyielding.

The trip was originally planned with another couple, so he rang them up as we were leaving church. However, they weren't in the mood to go out for a drive. Who could blame them, the weather called for cuddling by the fire, with some football on tv.
And so we drove out to Napa and no fall colors, just as I expected. But we managed to stumble upon Bouchon bakery and the Marketplace shopping complex just across from it. We explored the Marketplace first hoping there was some eats and coffee to be had, but the no food stalls, only stores selling clothing.

So we crossed the street to Bouchon and entered the crowded little place, got some coffee and yummy pastry to go. We drove out farther until we didn't want to go any further at all.

We turned back and spotted some vineyards still carrying some fall colors so we stopped to photograph them in the rain.

Leaving Napa, we drove out to our next destination for the day, in Alameda, where our department Christmas Party was being held. It's amazing that I've lived here for 2 decades and still haven't been in this part of the Bay Area. It's lovely and we showed up at the party, took photos, ate and drank, and stayed for a bit, then said goodbye.

The day was not over yet for us because we had some shopping to do. We were supposed to go to 2 different stores, but after going to Costco where we got the bulk of our items, we decided not to go to the second store. It was late after all, I was hungry and tired and cold.

This weekend, we'll be having our family Christmas lunch. I suggested the date because Christmas day is Tuesday and we have no vacation before or after the day, it would be difficult to stay up late :)

I got my Christmas gift from hubby. We both picked it up at Costco last Sunday. It was the same one that I said in the previous post that I'm not getting for Christmas. I actually got it.

Hope your Christmas celebration is filled with love from family and friends.

Jampacked

The Bay is full of activities this weekend. The Giants are hosting the Reds for the NLDS, the 49ers are home against Buffalo, there's music in the streets at the Blues Festival, boats race in the bay for America's Cup, then the Blue Angels show their tricks in the sky. It's going to be a gridlock in the city and any attempts to go for any reason must be given much thought and planning. No driving should be considered for many reasons, among them that traffic in and to the city would be horrendous, parking spots would be ten times harder to find and of course that gas prices spiked 40 cents overnight. It's best to just take public transport instead of getting stuck in the middle of the freeway and miss all the action.

I have insanely scheduled something in the city for Sunday pm. I would have to cancel that.

I got a text from my friend; it actually went to my husband's phone, because we swapped phones right after coming back from our vacation in Asia. The message said (it was in Tagalog): Maria my mother has passed away. I will let you know of viewing times and dates. That's all. She/he did not say who was sending the message. The phone number was not familiar to me, although it's in the same area code as mine. I read the text as we were driving home from visiting an elderly friend of ours; she fell and was bruised all over. She lives alone and had to yell for her life. Luckily she lives near the golf course and golfers heard her screams from the backyard and she got help immediately - also there is a fire station at the bottom of the hill.

And so after the emotional visit to that elderly friend, I got another shocker. First off, I couldn't really tell who was sending me the message. Then by the process of elimination, I called the first one that entered my mind. I called not send a text. She replied and I couldn't recognize her voice for an instant and then I called her name. I was lucky I guessed right.

Her mother got beat by lung cancer, which metastasized, according to her. Boy I really hate that word, metastasis, metastatic, metastasized, in all its form. Anyway, the call was short and she was planning on the viewing and the funeral. Four days later I got another text informing me of the viewing time and date. It's going to be this Sunday evening. So many things happening this weekend.

Monday Ramblings

What is it about weekends that sap my energy and make me forget what I did when Monday comes calling? Such is the truth again today Monday as I tried to dig into my brain recesses for what transpired over the weekend, Saturday most specifically.

Sunday I know what I did. It was a busy day with church service and picnic with 3 other churches. This is our second annual picnic with the other 3 churches and the attendance was bigger this year. I took it as a good sign. Last week I was in total panic mode, because well, this is sorta our project. My husband and I are our church's representative to this coalition. So we were supposed to have a hand at everything minute detail of the picnic and service. Thankfully everything went smoothly.

I was amazed at all the wonderfully delicious and healthy salads that were brought by parishioners. We grilled hotdogs, but other than that people just brought salad. We brought our "famous" and often made couscous and three-bean salad. I really love this salad so easy to make and so yummy. Needless to say there were 3 or 4 other bean salads on the table, but each one is different so that was good. Of course there were different pasta dishes and the mandatory potato and macaroni salads.

Because I believed I ate healthy - not to mention skipping breakfast - I treated myself to a very small piece of strawberry cheesecake and an equally small piece of chocolate mocha cake.

The service was at 10 am and we have a webinar at 2 pm. Since it was our project, my hubby and I were in charge of cleaning up (which included hauling all the chairs from the park to the church - the church is across from the park btw). We joined other church officers for the webinar midway into the first hour. I was so tired from hauling the chairs. But I guess that was because I'm not in good shape. We were able to invite only one couple who doesn't belong to our church to join us for the picnic and they came, bringing a rice dish. It was the only rice dish so that was good. However, I had my hands full making sure that the children were occupied with games and the people were having food and enjoying themselves that I hardly had time to entertain them. We spoke on the phone when we got home that evening.

After the webinar, we have been toying with the idea of going out to eat. Sorta treat for each other. However, as I was getting really tired and I was looking forward to watching the baseball game (Dodgers vs Giants, Giants win yahoo!) I didn't pursue the plan. Hubby wasn't keen on going out to eat as well. We've been talking about eating out for the past week since I've been hankering for a little frozen mango margarita courtesy of Chevy's Happy Hour.

Anyway, we got home and fixed some food to eat. There were some left over salads from the picnic that one of the church members collected for me. I don't know why she thinks I should bring home the left overs (there wasn't too much anyway) but I was glad that she fixed me a plate while I was hauling the chairs back to the church. And instead of fixing myself a glass of margarita, I was sipping iced coffee from McDonalds. Not a bad combination.

Hubby suggested we complete the building of cat house, but I was too lazy to move and the baseball game just started. Who would have thought that I'd sit there for nine innings and watch the ballgame in its entirety. I thought my baseball game watching is a thing of the past. It appears like it's not. I thoroughly enjoyed the game, btw, of course who wouldn't when one's fave team is winning.

Well look at that I managed to ramble on and on again and my ramblings don't make sense. Don't mind me, I have a pounding headache and I'm just trying to get through Monday. Hope your Monday is going smoother than mine. Have a lovely week.

Day 25 (30 days of June)

It was a busy weekend, both for me personally and the region in general. We had Gay Pride weekend in San Francisco, Nascar in Sonoma, and another festival in Berkeley/Oakland the name of which escaped my mind at the moment.

I knew about the Gay Pride parade and the festivities all weekend long and also the one in Sonoma. That's why even though I wanted to go to the Lavender Festival in Sonoma, I didn't. It would be traffic crazy right there. I was right. A friend and his folks got stuck in traffic on the way to wine tasting. They chose Sonoma instead of San Fran to explore (the parents are visiting the area) because they knew it would be a headache with traffic and parking in the city given the magnitude of Gay Pride weekend. They weren't aware of the Nascar at Infenion raceway though. Well....

On Saturday, I performed my weekly obligation to take mom out and drive here to where she wants to go. Tapsilog and halo-halo later, hubs and I were getting ready to watch a movie. I wanted to see Snow White and the Huntsman but I was over ruled. We watched what he liked - Prometheus. Sci-Fi. I know very little about this movie before I watched it. And I came out of the movie theater a bit disappointed. Why? I don't know why or what my expectations were, except that I knew something was missing.

Sunday was all day bbq at the reservoir - see pic from yesterday's post.

Today, I need to go to church meeting after work, then hopefully I still have the energy to do some laundry.

Faster Than A Hummingbird's Flapping Wings

IMGP0932, originally uploaded by M'roy.

The weekend that is..... don't you all agree? But despite all that, the weekend was gorgeous here, weather wise. We saw a high of 75F, very high for March, a temperature we seldom even experience in the summertime. I think it's a hot year, you know what I mean?

Among the things we did this weekend was attend a fundraising White Elephant Sale to benefit Oakland Museum. The rummage sale was held in a 96,000 sq ft storage near the Oakland estuary. This would be my second year in a row coming here.

List of our loot: books, mostly old, some are even in the 1800s, nothing fascinating. It's not for reading, we just want to collect it. The binding was interesting, mostly typical of the era I believe. Although there were 2 of them about Russian tsars, a bit interesting read I think.

There is also another book with a dedication in the front, dated 1939. Can you believe it? Someone gave this book to somebody in 1939 and 73 years later it's in my book shelf. Fascinating.

We skimmed through the art section, spent a short time there compared to last year, and still managed to buy three or four prints.

In the bric-a-brac section, I had no success. I was looking for some cat figurines, but they only have bigger ones and I saw only 3 or 4 of them. Where are the cats stuff?

Also catching our eye was the display of old Avon perfume bottles. I remember this, in the 70s my brother would send me Avon perfumes and the bottles were really interesting. They were works of art. I had a teddy bear, a little house, and other interesting bottles, I cannot remember. We gave the bottles away though when relatives asked for them. Mom couldn't say no. We have them displayed in the sala and everyone can see them. Of course I used up all the perfume, so mom thought it be okay to give away the bottles.

Anyway, these ones were doll figurine bottles. They were so cute and only a dollar for each one. I was tempted to buy the whole lot, except that the hubby was there with me and he usually put the reins on my shopping sprees (good to do). Hence, we only took 3 of those glass dolls, we chose the prettiest we could find.

As always the jewelry section was crowded, I just made a cursory round of the display. We went there in the afternoon and not enough time to browse the 96,000 sq footage of goodies. As we were leaving we spotted this beautiful and charming soup bowl, we always wanted to get one, at $8. So we bought it. We probably spent under $40 in total. Next year, we plan to spend the whole day there :)

Moving on, after our exciting rummage sale, we were scheduled to watch THE DESCENDANTS starring George Clooney. We had a discounted ticket at Shattuck Cinema in Berkeley, which is a short drive from the rummage sale. Now, this cinema is not a multiplex. It's a real cinema that I haven't been on one before.

The screening room is quite small, roughly 50 people capacity I believe. The seats are nothing like multiplex seating. At each aisle they have a couch like seating with leathered cushioned seats with leathered pillows as backing. Our seat was for two people only. It was like watching a movie in your own home. How cool is that???

The movie where George Clooney won best actor at the Golden Globes award this year was outstanding. That Clooney guy can really act. The story telling is superb, the cast was good. And Hawaii is so amazing. So dreamy. I want to go to Hawaii!!!!

Let's leave this post at that last sentence, that's like a shout-out to travel gods. That Sat went by fast so did Sunday. Hence, here we are again Monday workday. Hope the week runs smoothly for everyone.

BTW, we were awaken early morning by an earthquake. Scary!

I feel like I've been away............

I feel like I've been away from blogging forever and not just for a few days. I am surprised to find that I missed it. But the weekend has been really busy that I didn't have a single minute to even turn on the computer. Still am struggling with finding more free time to blog that I consider putting my meme blog on hold for a week or so until everything settles down.

Let me tell you about my weekend. First we finally got some rain. It's the middle of January and that's the first rain - substantial rain - we had. We needed more but it's a good start.

The rain made me lazy, but I had to clean the house for Sunday's viewing party. The local team, San Francisco 49ers, were competing the following day in the NFC championship. We have just started watching this sport so we're pretty ignorant about rules, but we were hosting a viewing party on Sunday. That meant I have to do some cleaning.

I made sure that I finished cleaning and had showered by 4 pm because I was going to my husband's company party that evening. I don't know why, but I even put polish in my fingernails. Somehow, it's not a real party without red nails, yikes.

And so the party that my hubs company hosts every January is for the Holidays, except they're too cheap to host the Holiday party during the Holidays when the prices are high. It's always cheaper in January you know.

It would be my 3rd party, in the same location, at Craneway Pavillion, next to the bay. At night you could see the lights in San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. It's not wise to go outside and enjoy the views though as it's always cold and windy near the water. Thankfully the sides of the structure is made of glass so you can enjoy the views without getting cold.

I would have to blog separately about the food because I have photos.

This year was the company's 60th anniversary. Upon entry they have a table of goodies. The gents can get a hat while the ladies can choose between a tiara, a ring that's like 50 carats, and a necklace bling that would make the hip hop artists bling shy. I of course chose a tiara and I wore it majority of the time while in the party.

They also have a few photo booths, which we were lucky to find early on so the line wasn't long. The party was probably attended by about 2,000 people. It's a big company - global - but has its HQ here in the Bay.

So we ate and drank and chit-chatted. I was introduced to new people and got reunited with people that used to work with the hubby. We took photos and then it was time to dance. My hubs doesn't dance and I wasn't in the mood to dance. We never stay for the dancing. Many people didn't either. It was kinda boring too you know.

Anyhow, we left for home about 10 pm. I drove because I hardly drank. I had a glass of red. My hubby had more than 2 so I was the designated driver.

I couldn't sleep until about 3 am. The waiter lied to me when I asked if he's pouring me decaf after dinner. At 1 am I knew he poured me real coffee.

Still raining on Sunday when we went to church. The 49ers game were at 3:30 and we had 6 people watching the game with us. Unfortunately the home team lost.

The week started in hectic fashion. Am so busy and hubby got me a book to read. Yeah I think I can find time to read.

Weekend Warrior

When I left a comment on Prinsesa's blog today, I told her my weekend was busy. Then I gave it a thought as I needed to write something here. I realized it wasn't as busy as I first thought it was.

On Saturday I had my weekly driver duties to mom. We skipped dining in because of time constraints. Instead we just ordered food from drive through and ate while on the way to the grocery store.

Saturday was the San Francisco Forty Niners game against the New Orleans Saints, American football if you must ask. We are not followers of the game, heck we hardly know the game. But it's jumping on the bandwagon time, it's being one with the community. Regional pride here people. Plus, we got invited to a viewing party, and we went. Needless to say, it was one of the best football games. The lead kept changing in the last 2 minutes of the game. Fortunately, the 49ers prevailed. They're headed on to the NFC championship this weekend. If they hurdle this challenge, then they go to vie for the Superbowl cup.

The game was so thrilling and tense I was exhausted. There was yelling and slapping and putting both hands on face, in the end my legs could hardly support me.

Still, we managed to hug our friends goodbye and told them next week's game is at our house (OMG!!!!).

They live in one of the neighborhoods that we looked at when we were house hunting. Furthermore they are just one block away from the house I fell in love with. We didn't put a bid on the house because it was next to a dancing hall. Yes, there are still dancing halls here. But the house is next to the bay, from the master's bedroom your view is the bay. Plus the attraction of the house for me is the entryway. It's like a cottage entry, but the interiors is definitely modern with high ceilings.

And so when we left our friend's house I asked the hubby to drive to the house and see if there are changes. OMG, the street was packed with cars, there was party in the dance hall and the charming gate/cottage entry has been replaced with suburban blah. Just looking at the noisy party made me realize how lucky we were for not putting a bid on this house, or even buying it.

Because we ate very little, we had to have dinner... and a movie. Our Netflix movie DEATHLY HALLOWS PART 2 arrived and we watched it and enjoyed it.

On Sunday was the usual routine, we went to church and wanted to do nothing else. I went to soak the laundry (very exciting eh?) and then vacuumed the downstairs. Then I put the Harry Potter movie again, I never tire of watching it. By the time it ended, the Golden Globes was about ready to begin. However, we needed to run to the grocery store for some last-minute necessities we need for the whole week.

Monday was Holiday for me. Hubs had to work. It's a me time. I woke up, stayed in bed and caught up with REVENGE. Then came down and had rice and sardines (Ligo). I only get to eat this breakfast if hubby is out. He thinks my eating sardines and rice for breakfast (it's nearly 12) is weird. Surfing and doing laundry while eating breakfast. Then its time to line dry my laundry. Do you line dry your laundry? I do.

Then I rang up the pharmacy to see if they were open that day bec I neede a refill on my Rx. They were. It's a very short drive, 5 minutes tops. And the wait was nonexistent. I got my refill in 5 minutes.

And here is where I should have exercised self control but I didn't. I went to Taco Bell and ordered Nacho Bellgrande and coke. I know I should stay away from fastfood but Taco Bell nachos are my most fave and I couldn't resist. I told myself it was holiday anyway.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching dvd and editing photos for uploading on my Flick'r.

See it wasn't a busy week.

Of Weekend Eating

It's Monday again, drat, I haven't even digested the weekend yet.

Oh the weekends of adults are mostly running around doing errands and performing chores at home. If I knew it was going to be like this, I'd have delayed my adulthood (wink).

Kidding aside, I'm already feeling run down early in the year, and this despite the gorgeous atypical weather we've been having. 70F in January, no kidding. I was wearing short sleeve! I cannot remember when our weather was this gorgeous. However, all this beautiful weather has some bad side to it. If we continue to have this spring-like and summer-like conditions, we might get in trouble come summertime when we need our water. Our water reserve mainly rely on the snow in the Sierra in the winter and rain down where we are during fall and winter months. We haven't had rain down here, nor did it snowed in Sierra yet. All the snow that's in the resorts right now are all man-made. Somehow, we need to get our winter going here.

Still, the gorgeous weather makes one want to be outside. Which meant that we found time to remove our "lightings" from the Holidays. We didn't really put many stuff outside, so when I was done, hubby was surprised that we put in too little time getting the decors back in their boxes.

I have to still get our Christmas tree down, maybe one of these nights. Not tonight I have a church meeting, which means I may have to miss CASTLE.

Let me tell you about some eating I have done this weekend.

Every Saturday I take my mom around to run her errands. Among her errands is lunch in either Chow King or Jollibee. Now that she completely dumped Jollibee (price is high for the serving they give you, she said), she has found a regular lunch place in Red Ribbon. She simply adores the combo meal - half an order of arroz caldo and 2 mini siopaos. I on the other hand either gets the palabok by itself or the half palabok + half arroz caldo.

So you see I don't really miss so much of the Philippine food scene. Next door is Max Fried Chicken. There are plenty of other restaurants that serve cafeteria style Pinoy food around.

On Saturday evening we took our newly widowed friend Gay to a little dinner over at Villa Romano. Our plan was for lunch but for pete's sake the restaurant doesn't open for lunch on the weekend.

So dinner it was. We drove to Napa where the restaurant is located. You see we pass by this restaurant each time we drive to Napa and every single time I let out a sigh wanting to try that restaurant. We never got around to it, until last Saturday.

We made reservations at 5 pm the time they open. There was one table already occupied. It's an old house converted into a restaurant. It feels like eating at a friend's house.

The waitress said we have to have the garlic bread, it's a must she says. So we had it. It's actually like a half of a round french sweet bread that was baked until the crust was crunchy and brown and it was topped with cheese and served in a nice platter. The waitress then took a broiled/baked whole head of garlic, pinched it and all the goooey garlic goodness oozed out and was spread thickly on the bread. It was too die for. Not only was the bread really delicious, the presentation was superb. Never had a garlic bread done this way before.

For appetizers, we got only one order of fried calamari, which in my experience is always enough for four people. I was right. There were only three of us, but we ate the whole thing all thru the meal, we couldn't seem to finish it.

Caesar salad followed. I didn't really want a salad, but said okay when hubby suggested we split one order. Thankfully we did that because as always the Caesar salad itself looks like an entree portion.

For our entree I chose risotto with chicken. The husband had the three cheese tortellini with pancetta. Gay had the seafood linguini.

I simply adored my risotto. The serving was large, the chicken was delicious, I don't usually order chicken in the restaurant. The creaminess of the risotto was wonderful. Although it's not the traditional big grain risotto that we're so used to. It was marvelous.

Gay's seafood linguini looks very soupy, which didn't escape her notice. But it's supposed to since she ordered seafood and seafood is watery. Anyway we asked the waitress to give us some extra cheese to counter the soupy nature.

Hubby's tortellini dish was right on the spot too. However, there was more pancetta than I or he wanted and needed more tortellini, but otherwise a good dish.

After all these dishes and wine, we had room for dessert. We ordered one sampler dessert and that was just fine serving. The dessert plate had a sorbet, which was a palate cleanser, an espresso tiramisu and flourless chocolate cake. While the chocolate cake was good, the best flourless choc cake I had eaten so far is at Ristorante Due Rose, Italian restaurant in my neighborhood.

And so it was a fun 2.5 hours of dinner we had. We even saw the sunset while sipping wine.

You know I do have photos of the dishes, although I don't think they turned out well. I was only using a point and shoot, because I cannot bring myself to whip out a DSLR when dining, do you?

I'm going to keep track of all our dining out expenses this year. While we were really good with budget last year, we didn't really know how much of it goes to eating out.

The Oh So Short Weekend Is Over - Again

Really when was weekend long enough? When did we have enough of the weekend? When was the last time I was raring to go back to work?

I cannot remember the time I was going stir crazy and wanted to go back to work. But every weekend seem oh so short. Not all the chores can be accomplished in the 48 hours. It's not just long enough to cram all the housework and the "fun" stuff that we imagined we'd be having when weekend rolls around.

I did have another short weekend, but it was sorta fun. Our little Alex turned 2 and so there was a little "handa". Alex is my niece's son. That niece and I are 12 years apart, but we are mentally equal. I consider myself not having achieved full mental maturity as of yet :)

Because this time around we arrived at the time that was specified on the evite, we were there before everyone else is, except for family, which really made the time more special. Particularly since my other niece's 16-month old son happened to be there. It was the first time I'm seeing this adorable little boy who is a mini me of his mother. Just a carbon copy of his mother.

I again attacked the homemade lumpia that my niece made. I only go for the lumpia, I'm such a maniac when it comes to lumpia.

Anyway, we were there for about 2 hours chatting and eating with family when we decided to go. Then it was time to drive mom to the grocery store to grab a few items.

Then it was grocery time (Costco) and haircut (hubby) time. Then it was off to the church where I got to dress the altar - it was my schedule this week.

It was 8 pm by the time I got home and sat for supper.

Sunday was equally short I thought. Was at church until about 12 noon. Hubby had a web seminar at church at 2 pm. While he was away, I vacuumed the entire house. I totally abhor vacuuming, I'd rather wash dishes by hand or do the laundry. I hate everything with dusting, sweeping, mopping or vacuuming. But it was my week to do the vacuuming. It was really needed too, as I emptied the container 3x while I was doing the chore.

Immediately afterwards I headed out to the front yard where our rose plants have dead buds that needed clipping. So I was there clipping the dead hips and buds and doing some pruning as well. Then I noticed that the agaphantus had dead flowers too, which needed clipping as well.

Since I already was in the garden very long, I decided what the heck and continue snipping dry, dead blooms. I have been meaning to cut the dry lavender flowers from the plants because I can see newer growths coming out.

And so there I was on my knees clipping these aromatic blooms. It made for a lovely scented air whenever a breeze comes blowing. I loved it.

I have a paper bag full of clippings. I may give them away. Right now it is giving my house a wonderful aroma. I may make some bunches and bring them to work and give them away.

But I'm sure I'd keep some for bathroom and linen closet. I love lavender.

Oh I also found time to upload some bloggable pics on Flick'r and compose a post.

But that's about it. That's how the weekend went.

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.