Day 3-SF Chinatown and Nob Hill

Day Two- San Ramon

We visited cousins of my Bolivian host family tonight (Sunday). Very cool. They've been in the Bay area over 20 years so they were great guides and took us on a driving night tour of SF after a delicious Chinese dinner.

Our Family Turns One!

We spent Sunday night with friends in San Ramon (relatives of my Bolivian family) and Monday morning the mom laid out a gorgeous inn-style breakfast complete with anniversary orquid blooms on our plates! It was so sweet~more to come...

we are cozy in the GG hotel with Pip the cat...just wait for pix! Tomorrow we head to Alcatraz early...
I'll post some pix from today in SF...Chinatown shopping and dim sum! (It has been a very good trip for authentic ethnic cuisine.
Saturday night we ate at Amir's Kabob House in Monterey and Sunday afternoon we had brunch at a Salvadoran cafe on the way out to San Ramon.

We finished up the day with a cable car ride to Fisherman's Wharf for a Ghiardelli sundae and a Dungeness Crab Avocado Cobb Salad. (in that order)..plus 3 *delicious* Irish Coffees from The Buena Vista-where Irish Coffee was invented in 1952. Then, deciding the queue for the return cable car was entirely too long we walked up and up and up Powell St. til we came upon the Crookedest St.(Lombard) which we had driven down last night (more on that later). upon our return Pip followed us into the 100 year old lift and came to visit us in our room for a drink out of the sink. (!)

www.thebuenavista.com/irishcoffee.html

Day Two-Pacific Grove Lantern Festival

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Day Two-Monterey

Day One -Santa Clarita to Monterey

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Countdown to vacation!

Well it's the 48 hour countdown to our first anniversary vacation! I went to a little afternoon informal get together with my new kinder team yesterday- everyone was really super! Then, we hosted three of D's co-worker friends last night. D. prepared a delicious summery blackened chicken salad with fresh roasted white corn and black beans, along with homemade chocolate chip ice cream cookie sandwiches. Paired with Peach Iced Tea and a gorgeous evening, it was a great time. One of the girls who came over will be house/catsitting for us next week while we drive up the coast! Here is the itinerary for the trip:

Sat. July 28 drive up highway 1 along the coast, stops in Big Sur and San Simeon (we hope to spot some elephant seals even though it's not the best season for it) lunch or dinner in Carmel and explore
overnight in Monterey

Sun. July 29 Monterey Aquarium and Cannery Row; drive to San Ramon to visit friends (overnight San Ramon)

Mon. July 30 drive to San Francisco! (Golden Gate Hotel)
Things to see in S.F.
Golden Gate Park/Golden Gate Bridge
North Beach (Italian section)
Chinatown (dim sum)
Union Square
Telegraph Hill
cable car
Ghiardelli shop

Tues. July 31 Tour Alcatraz! stay at The Golden Gate Hotel

Wed. Aug. 1 one more day in S.F. (maybe drive up to see Berkley?) dinner w/friends in the city

Thurs. Aug. 2 drive south!

D.'s taking the whole week off so he'll have the house to himself on Fri while I head in to my new classroom to set up...here we go!

check out our SF hotel: www.goldengatehotel.com with it's resident pets Pip and Humphrey...

Patio Fun!

We got the new patio set up and running~ very exciting since neither of us have ever had an umbrella patio set...we had lunch outdoors and went back out for twilight time...there was a gorgeous orange pink sunset and the weather was perfectly calm and temperate. check out sunset pix over at www.scvtalk.com
p.s. in an interesting stab of irony, it rained overnight (in the early morning hours). It hasn't rained enough this year, and this is the "dry" season. How funny that it rained on our new furniture the very first night! (It's all dry now!)

A beautiful morning

There are few times in life when I wish I had a video camera but this morning definitely would've been one of them.

Timeline:

11:31 p.m. - finish reading the first chapter of "Blessed Unrest" by Paul Hawken and wander around the house to find Lu's chosen resting spot for the night (there are several preferred spots, none of which seem to be the foot of the bed anymore.) :(

11:32 p.m. - after checking the living room floor, the kitty bed by the slider, and master bedroom closet, I happily find Lu in her latest domain, tucked behind three rolls of wrapping paper and my file boxes under my desk. It's dark, it's private, and I can't reach her, making this an ideal place to bed down. I "fluff" her goodnight, since I can't reach her head for a peck on the nose, and go to sleep.

? a.m.- Lu calmly sits on the bed table and plays with my hair barrette until I respond. She has been doing this consistently between 4:55 and 5:05 a.m., finally restoring her wondrous alarm clock powers that have been MIA for the past two year.
We traipse down the stairs, she with eager meows powered by anticipation of flaky wet protein of some mysterious origin and I gripping the stair rail for dear life, since I am technically still sleeping. After taunting her by holding the 3 oz. can of "Fancy Feast White Meat Chicken Florentine in a delicate sauce with garden greens"*
under her nose for a few seconds, I rip up the pull-top and dump the soppy mess in her dish. I glance at the microwave. It's 4:01. So she can't actually tell time.

*how do they fit all that on a 3 oz. can?

5:00 a.m.- realizing her gaffe Lu attempts to wake me up by playing with the barrette on the bedside table again, EVEN THOUGH SHE HAS ALREADY EATEN. The stack of library books teeter threateningly on the edge, and of course my glasses are already in their normal post-Lu position of "way under the bed where I can't reach!" This is the point in the day (most especially when that day is a Sunday) when Lu is banished to the upstairs bathroom! Therein are a litter box, a water bowl, a soft rug and most importantly, the room has a door far enough away from our room that we can't hear the scratching. This part is crucial, as I've never had a home with this particular quality. I contemplate leaving the light on for her, think about global warming, and switch it off. I cannot fall back asleep, and consider getting up for the day. I do not.

8:51 a.m. - Wake up realizing that I meant to go to a 9:00 a.m. yoga class, realize I cannot make it, and decide to rescue the Lu from the loo instead. This is where the morning becomes eclectic. Luna is beyond grateful for my rescue, and fawns over me by wrapping herself around my legs and rubbing her chin on my feet. I basked in the attention (since it's pretty much all you're gonna get from this independent kitty) and scooped her up. We went into the sunny 3rd bedroom- or yogakitty room.

Lu was really entertaining; chasing her tail, somersaulting after it and dive-bombing the carpet, just having a grand time. Then she located her catnip pillow inside the kitty cave crinkle tunnel and retrieved it, then just went crazy attacking and rolling around with it on the floor. She bit and clawed, dug and swished that tail like crazy. She rolled back and forth on the carpet, and pulled herself across the floor lying down and using her claws and grips. Later, she sacked out on the pile of blankets I was sorting from our storage retrieval adventure yesterday.

Happy Sunday!

Morning Buzz

I am up before 9 am for the first time this week! whoo-hoo! It's so fresh and cool in the morning- only 64 degrees right now. I am heading out to the garage to cut down boxes and put them in the recycling bin. (Today is garbage day.) Here are Five exciting things on Friday:

1. We ordered a patio set from Sears last night-we pick it up tomorrow!
2. We leave for our anniversary road trip up the coast in 1 week- heading to Carmel, Monterey and S.F.! (1st time!)
3. We have a cat sitter coming to stay at our place (trusted friend/co-worker of D.'s)
4. I am 98% finished with an article I'm submitting to a girls' mag~it's being fact-checked right now!
5. I have been writing A LOT! I have two main projects on the table, and I started a fun new story yesterday just for warm-ups and my own entertainment- ended up with 3600 words just yesterday!

Now five frightening* things for Friday:

1. 4.2 earthquake near S.F. this morning! (aacck)
2. there are still lots of boxes in the garage
3. we are emptying our storage unit tomorrow (yeah, we put that off last week)
4. I am sore from yoga
5. Luna has been good in the mornings lately, but today she pushed a heavy drinking glass of D's bedside table.
(It was almost empty. Now we're especially glad we picked dark chocolate brown carpet)

Last list: 5 things to finish on Friday

1. Garage
2. Write
3. Garage
4. Garbage/recycling
5. Other

*So I wondered why "frightening" is spelled with an /e/ and lightning is not. (Although I don't tolerate poor spelling, I tend to misspell lightning frequently.) Here is what my desktop dictionary said under lightning:

Usage: Years ago, the phrase 'It is lightening' was contracted to 'it is light'ning.' which eventually became further shortened to 'it is lightning'. In modern use, the word lightning stands on its own as a noun and a verb. Today, in the context of electrical storms, lightening would likely be considered a misspelling rather than a variant spelling of lightning.

hmph.

yoga for one

So, yesterday's 4:30 Level 2 class was taught by Blaire, a pleasant, knowledgeable yogi with flowing hair and a generous sprinkling of fun looking tattoos. As it turns out, I was the only student. Now, this puts me in an awkward position for two reasons.

1. I do not blend in.
2. The teacher is watching me the WHOLE time.

So, I had a choice to make. Leave, and avoid the one to one attention or grab the opportunity for a "private" yoga session.
I grabbed.
It was fun, and we did a lot of abs work and some pilates based stuff on top of the yoga.

Tomorrow I plan to try a morning and an afternoon class to make up for not going today.

YogaYoga

Finally made my way to downtown Newhall to check out the local yoga studio...picked up 10 days unlimited for $25. It's a cute, spacious studio in a pale yellow plaza on Walnut St. With wood floors and a partial beamed angled ceiling, along with a rectangular skylight and white walls, it is a pleasant practice space.I tried a community class taught by Crystal at 4:30 yesterday. There were three of us in class, and Crystal's gentle, guiding voice held just the right amount of knowledge and competence. She provided several super modifications for my almost-35-yr.-old creaking joints. Today I'm going to try out Blair's 4:30 class.

Luna's Playroom

Seeing as how their are no human grandbabies as of yet, the 3rd bedroom has been transformed into a 1/2 yoga, 1/2 kitty playroom for now. Here is the latest Lu toy,
the CRINKLE TUNNEL. According to the label, cats CANNOT RESIST the sounds and will LOVE this toy. See for yourself.




As you can tell, most of the action is occuring OUTSIDE the tunnel at one end.
At one point though, she (thankfully) poised for the hunt and jumped from one end out the hole in the middle; we figure if she does this 5 more times it will make the $6.49 sales price worth the purchase.

Home Improvement

The floors are in, the furniture back in place, so don't you think it's time to ...



empty the STORAGE UNIT??? You thought we already moved everything in? ha! Well, we only wish. Tomorrow we rent a truck once again and empty our 4th floor unit in NoHo (North Hollywood). I have not seen the contents of these boxes for 2 YEARS. Some think this means I need never see them again. Yet I am one of those visual people, to whom memories come flooding back when I see something from long ago. Here are some House pix so you can see the new carpet, and such.Plus the VERY EXCITING new red trash can. Now, lest you think that because the trash can is such a brilliant RUBY RED the idea of making trash is central to our existence...think again! Yours truly will be attending a backyard composting course next weekend at the local water department. (However, I have a feeling it may be meant for those with a backyard bigger than 15 X 10. In any case, I will be there. and I will learn.

Fantasia

Ok- I'm converted. Even though I have traditionally enjoyed a variety of music over the years, for whatever reason I have not been interested in listening to music during the past several years. (That's one reason D. has been so excited to have a whole room with a door where he can play tunes instead of our one room place) But this week I've actually been enjoying some music. I picked up two Shedaisy cd's (see playlist) One I had several years ago but it disappeared somewhere and the other is new to me. In addition to avoiding music, I always avoided shows such as American Idol. My "reason" was that I hate hearing people "fail" or "do badly". (I avoid figure skating and gymnastic shows for the same reason) I guess I need to work on my optimism. In any case, when I flipped on the TV at about 8:30 this morning Good Morning America had their Friday Summer concert series going. Normally, I flip the channel to avoid the musical group but for some reason I was curious.

Wow!

This woman has some pipes! She is currently appearing in The Color Purple on Broadway. She sang two tunes- one pop and "I'm Here" from the show. Her presence and demeanor were truly inspiring. I'm a convert! Now I can't believe I missed all the "Fantasia" hype when it was going on. Well, maybe it's better that way.

www.fantasiabarrinoofficial.com

Palmdale

I took a hilly high desert drive up highway 14 for a children's writers meeting in Palmdale. Of course, my first stop was the library, which was spanish/desert style adobe with big metal and painted suns everywhere and lots of colorful tile. From there, I headed over to the local Barnes and Noble for the 7 pm meeting, and on the way passed this:

The Palmdale Youth Library-a whole library building instead of one children's room! que interesante!

The meeting itself was fun. A variety of experience and different age writers were there, including Felix Mayerhofer, a big-band era jazz musician from Rochester, NY. He has written over 37 children's stories, and currently has two published titles, an autobiography called Diary of A Young Musician and a picture book, Horace the Great Harmonica King. His website offers a great photo gallery. He is married to Shirley, who he met when she was a showgirl. She now helps edit his stories. He started writing only after retiring from his band director position at age 60. He is truly an inspiration!

www.felixmayerhofer.com

One of our new neighbors is also a writer. He has a Young Adult sci-fi/fantasy tale based on characters inspired by his children. I had the pleasure of reading a copy of the book, The Chronicles of the Virago the other night, and was again inspired to focus on my writing. Wish me luck...