Mindless babbling/blogging

We all need verbal diarrhea sometimes.  And I thought I am about to have one, so watch out.

I spoke about the crab season on a My World post two weeks ago.  In that post I mentioned that was my second week in a row to go crabbing.  Well, last weekend I went for the third straight weekend.  Not my choice of activity, because believe me as much as I enjoy the outdoors and the smell of the bay in the air, I thought three weeks in a row of crabbing is a bit much, don’t you think?  But hubs was insistent, partly because his boss already loaned him a net for crabbing.  Now why would he do that when we already have two nets we use.  Groaning for days, I eventually relented and joined him and another couple for a short hour and a half of crabbing at the pier in Berkeley Marina, which is a short ride from our place and  a short distance from everything.  Hubs and the friend were too excited while I and the friend’s wife couldn’t really care less if they catch anything.  Dungeness crabs were going for 5.99/lb that Saturday and if we really wanted to have one, the grocery store is not too far away, plus just outside of the marina is a store that sells fresh crabs, so there.

But the men were blessed with lucky streak, not too long after they threw their nets, we were hauling medium-sized stone crabs.  We had caught a total of seven crabs. 

We parted ways after the crabbing.  We were going to run some errands.  They were going to try and fix up their new condo, which they are in the process of moving in.  Since all their possessions are still boxed, we invited them over for dinner.  Hubs volunteered to cook the crabs Singaporean chili crab style but I had a hankering for some Thai green chili style with creamy coconut milk so we went with the latter. 

We stopped by an Asian grocery store and ran into another of hubs co-worker and saw his 3 month old baby girl for the first time.  Chatted with the parents, poked and kissed the little baby and for some reason we stopped by for some Chinese food.  Really?  We were cooking dinner for people and we are taking out Chinese food? 

When friends arrived, I let my husband show the husband how to cook the crabs while us wives sat and chatted and drank some wine.  Dinner was wonderful with good crabs we caught ourselves and wine to match.

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Why do husbands act the way they do?  Over at Costco last Sunday, there was a woman yelling, “honey” over and over.  Apparently the “honey” she’s calling did not hear her so she persisted.  We were standing infront of the wine display at that time.   On the third call of “honey” a feeling that my husband was going to turn his head towards the direction of the voice came upon me.  On the fourth call, he did!  And I hit him hard on his arm and asked why did you turn around?  I call him honey, but I was right next to him and he was well aware of that, yet he still turned around.  His response?  He was not the only husband to turn around and look at the woman! 

What I did not tell him was that I turned my head around at the first call of honey, *wink.

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Okay, so I am counting my blessings today. 

• Family who loves me and supports me
• Friends who entertains and sometimes frustrates me
• Blogging which continues to eat up more of my time
• Roof over my head
• Unanswered prayer because I learn to be patient and more prayerful
• Frustration because it keeps me on my toes
• Relatively good health for me and my family

And now that I have said my thanks, I have to eat turkey now.  And because there’s a 20-lb turkey in the fridge, it would take me a long time to finish this up, so you wont be seeing me in blogosphere for a few days. 

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving Holidays to every one.

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My World #6: Goats R Us

I first saw them many years ago on the local news.  They were being featured after they did “work” for the SFO runway.  Apparently, there are some spots in the runway, where workmen are not allowed and for some reason, they can get access. 

I never paid any more attention to it.  A couple of years later as I was a few yards from home, I hit a little traffic in this residential road.  I noticed the people stopped their cars in the middle of the road to watch them do their work on the hillside.  This particular hillside is a little steep that man cannot do the job.  I thought that was funny that they get tapped to do the job.  The following day, just as I was driving past that same spot, I saw their “ride”.  A trailer with the words GOATS R US was parked on the side of the road. 

Another year past and I was expecting to see them do their usual work of the hillside.  But they were nowhere to be found.  One weekend my hubs and I did our usual walk/photo shoot of our fave regional park, we saw them.  They are now doing this work for the park for fire prevention purposes, as you know California has added fire as the fifth season of the year.  And because I had come here to shoot and walk, I had my camera with me.  Below are the shots I took from that walk.  Taken at Point Pinole Regional Shoreline.

This spring I saw them in the neighboring city clearing hillside brush in the residential area again.  I guess there will be no dearth of work to be done by these handsome beasts.

Is there something similar to this in your world?  I would like to know.  Thanks.

Would you like to see similarities and differences of your world to other bloggers?  Check them out here.

 

Friday’s Foto

IMG_0353copy, originally uploaded by airam94564.

Another shot of our leaf peeping drive.

Have a good weekend everyone.

 

L. Vong

There is a blogger out there who’s started to post/showcase her many friends one at a time.  I thought that is an interesting subject to explore.  The attraction of the subject for me also comes from the fact that I have not had “friends” since I left the Philippines.  You know real friends, the kind who knows your insides, knows exactly how your intestines bend and where.  I have made a lot of friends through school—all levels I attended I made bestfriends.  I thought I’d walk the memory lane down to my friends houses.  Would you join me?

Code name:  L. Vong.  I met her in Grade I.  She sat in the same row, she was in the front and I was three or four seats behind her.  What made me remember her [the only thing I remember about her] was the fact that at 7 am she would enter the room with these popsicles [the twin kind], she would eat one right away, and keep the other in her desk[our desk had a compartment for all our things] for recess, which was at 9 am.  I thought that was weird since the popsicle would have melted by then, you know Philippine heat and all.  The funny thing is I never got around to see whether she ate the other one for recess or not.  I reminded her of this later in our friendship but she had no recollection of it whatsoever.

She moved to another school after the first grade.  I met up with her again in high school.  We were in the same class, because of a mix up.  I enrolled in Section 1, but ended up in Section 6 [both are the “good” sections].  The adviser of Section 6 wanted me to be in her class, but all my other friends from elementary school were in Section 1, where we all agreed to be.  Anyway, the separation from my grade school homies proved fruitful as I got hooked up with Elvong and her grade school homies.  We were in the same class for four years. 

Nothing was exceptional with our friendship, we ran around the same circle, went to the same places, did the same things, laughed at the same jokes, and gossiped together, attended the same church, etc.

We roomed together in Manila for one semester. I think that was when we really bonded.  I got to know her sisters more and I learned that she was way cooler than I expected or even knew.  By the second semester we parted ways.  But every free time from school we had, we got together.  I was introduced to her new sets of friends.  The remarkable thing about her is that the saying: BIRDS OF THE SAME FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER does not apply.  She made friends with everybody.  She was seen with the good girls and also with the Lindsay Lohans and Paris Hiltons of our town and yet people admired her for accepting these women as her friends.

She was overly protective of people she loves and dedicated to her duties.  When her bestfriend, another classmate, left for Germany, L. Vong assumed the best friend’s role as daughter and sister.  I was dragged to the best friend’s house to visit and check their situtation.  The parents were only too thankful that L. Vong was checking up on them, on how the crops are growing, on whether they have been spared of the seasonal fever and cough, those sort of things. 

When she married a boy from our circle, I was only too happy.  They were perfect together.  Plus the boy had suffered enough, we thought.  He waited and waited for years until she finally said yes.  And I was one of the many who was godmother to her first born.

I remember she was the only one who really knew me  that well.  Knew me too much she taught, er showed me how I am.  One day we were having a friendly poker game, she called me out for being way too cautious.  I never realized that I was that way.  You see mathematically speaking, my cards were way too good not to risk a high bet.  Our bets were candies at that time.   There was like a 10% chance that I would lose that hand, still I bet a measely 5 candies, if I remember correctly.  I think that was the first time I heard someone tell me, LIVE A LITTLE.  I remember taking a long pause and saw the whole situation, like an out of body experience (which could really be due to our alcohol conspumption), and I questioned myself why I didn’t take that risk, after all what was I going to lose?  Candies?  Candies that I was never going to eat anyway since I wasn’t into hard candies.  But stubbornly, I did stand by my bet.  You of course knew, I got heckled for being such a chicken. 

Anyway, I remember her today because September is her birthday.  It’s been 15 years since I last celebrated her birthday with her.  I miss my friend.

(Author’s Note:  This was written in September and has been sitting in my draft folder.  I miss her this Holidays too.)

 

My World 5: Crab Season

IMG_0114, originally uploaded by airam94564.

This weekend was the beginning of crab season here in the Bay area. For the last two weekends, I found myself crabbing. Initial reports claimed that the crabs were aplenty.

For the first weekend, on November 8, we went to Berkeley Marina. It was a cold windy day, but the pier was full of people with more people have crab nets than fishing poles. We were able to haul medium-sized stone crabs that barely clear the size restrictions. Those we cooked as Singaporean chili crabs, yummylicious.

Last Saturday, after learning that the best spot to go crabbing is by the foot of the Golden Gate Bridge, off we went and found that pier you see from across the foot of the Golden Gate. People were crabbing there too and the time we arrived we saw someone pulling up her net and catching a big one, a stone crab and not a dungeness that’s the signature crab of the SF.

Both me and my crabbing companions have a tough day so far and a very tiring one too, but the minute we sat and threw our nets in the water, we found comfort in the beautiful 80-degree weather with the Golden Gate Bridge glowing in the sun. We all have been living in this area for years and years and never have we seen the bridge this way. We were all one in saying this is why the tourists keep coming here. Every light shows a different beauty to the bridge. We let our husbands deal with the nets as I just took photos. This one is not one I took from Saturday. But that’s my shadow taken November of last year.

After a seal had taken all our baits, we decided to just get closer to the bridge so we left Fort Baker pier and drove a few minutes across to the other side of the Golden Gate and enjoyed our first Golden Gate sunset.  We went home crabless and crabby because a seal outwitted us, but we were treated to a home-cooked Indian dinner by our crabbing companions.  It was a good Saturday in my world.

To see more of other people’s world and/or to join in showing your world, check out MY WORLD.

 

Friday’s Foto

IMG_0082, originally uploaded by airam94564.

WOO HOOOOOOO!

Tim Lincecum (seen here in the mound facing an Atlanta Brave during the August 6, 2008 day game), SF Giants ace, was named NL Cy Young Award winner. The selection was what Brian Sabean termed “in an Obama-like fashion”, Lincecum won the voting by a landslide.

This makes the next season more interesting. I hope the mgt find good players from their minor league farm and not insist on getting those expensive “rent-a-player” veterans.

Hurray, cheers to you Tim!

 

How to Lose Weight Without Exercise

With the upcoming Holiday season and all the eating we are going to do, I thought I’d post this reminder or tip to lose all those calories we are surely going to inhale.

Proper weight control and physical fitness cannot be
attained by dieting alone. Many people who are engaged
in sedentary occupations do not realize that calories
can be burned by the hundreds by engaging in strenuous
activities that do not require physical exercise.

Here’s the guide to calorie-burning activities and the
number of calories per hour they consume.

Beating around the bush. . . . . . . . .75

Jumping to conclusions . . . . . . . . 100

Climbing the walls . . . . . . . . . . 150

Swallowing your pride. . . . . . . . . .50

Passing the buck . . . . . . . . . . . .25

Throwing your weight around (depending on your
weight). . . .50-300

Dragging your heels. . . . . . . . . . 100

Pushing your luck. . . . . . . . . . . 250

Making mountains out of molehills. . . 500

Hitting the nail on the head . . . . . .50

Wading through paperwork . . . . . . . 300

Bending over backwards . . . . . . . . 75

Jumping on the bandwagon . . . . . . . 200

Balancing the books. . . . . . . . . . .25

Running around in circles. . . . . . . 350

Eating crow. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 225

Tooting your own horn. . . . . . . . . .25

Climbing the ladder of success . . . . 750

Pulling out the stops. . . . . . . . . .75

Adding fuel to the fire. . . . . . . . 160

Wrapping it up at the day’s end. . . . .12

To which you may want to add your own favorite
activities, including:

Opening a can of worms . . . . . . . . .50

Putting your foot in your mouth. . . . 300

Starting the ball rolling. . . . . . . .90

Going over the edge. . . . . . . . . . .25

Picking up the pieces after. . . . . . 350

 

My World 4: Pt. Reyes Lighthouse Part Deux

Last week, I have featured Pt. Reyes Lighthouse and one visitor mentioned about the 300 or so steps up and down the lighthouse that I did not show.  I thought that featuring just jone picture did not suffice.  So, this week, it’s all photos.  All pertinent info on this lighthouse has been given last week.

There is very little parking spot provided, so most people just park on the narrow street and the walk alone before you reach the lighthouse, not counting on the 300 step descent, is kinda workout for some people.  Especially since this place is always breezy with cold winds slapping your whole body.

We begin to descend.  Little piece of information I have failed to mention the last time, this was taken the day after Thanksgiving, it was rainy day, cloudy at times, and very cold.  It was also a perfect time to take the walk down and up again after all the turkey that was consumed the day before.

The stairs take a bend where the lighthouse is not visible.   On regular intervals, they have this side areas where you one can catch their breath or to take photos.  One can get winded, even those who look young and fit.

We’re almost there.  A few more steps (panting* panting* tongue hanging out*)

Let’s enjoy the scenery and investigate the lighthouse.  Many people take photos of themselves.  I forgot to take photos of me, I was too busy with the sweeping views.

Oh no, now we begin to climb up.  I don’t know if you can see, but the bottom most step is numbered 302.  Yes, this is the most painful part of the visit. 

If you want to see more of other people’s world or to show yours, this is where you want to go.

 

Friday’s Foto

IMG_0341, originally uploaded by airam94564.

What I am about to write/share has nothing to do with the photo.

On the commute this morning (it’s still Thursday here in California), as my mind wanders when in a traffic jam, I suddenly remember I dreamed about Tony Bourdain last night. We were in some exotic location and of course there was pig (roast–lechon???) involved and lots and lots of eating. Hahaha!

Oh well, happy weekend every one.

 

Apologize

IMG_0036, originally uploaded by airam94564.

They were friends,had mutual friends and belonged to the same clique. She thought he was always there for him. He was. In high school, he would tease her with any boy who would show interest in her. She was always comfortable with his company. She would allow him to do her math homework, despite her inner voice telling her not to. She did because he always volunteered. She would correct the ones she thought were erroneous, but there were so few of those cases/problems that merited her correction.

They [the clique] remained close through college even though everyone went to different universities. They would maintain close contact, meet during school breaks, and write to each other in between breaks.

The closeness stayed through their post collegiate days when they all shared the pains of applying for jobs and waiting endlessly for call backs.

All through this, he was secretly carrying a torch for her, which she knew nothing about. Everyone in their circle knew, however. The girls told the boys she knew nothing about it and that he was misreading all the signs. She remained close to him, considered him her very close friend. What she thought was the same treatment she was giving him all these years were now being colored differently by him because of these feelings he suddenly felt for her. She remained clueless. Sure, she would catch him staring at her, or sometimes all his focus was on her, but she brushed those aside as inconsequential. It simply did not occur to her he would break the pact—no hooking up in this group. Of course that pact had become null as two other couples came out of this group. He was wishing they would be the third couple. She was wishing for someone else.

It all unravelled one weekend trip to the beach. She brought friends with her from college, a couple. He did not know they were a couple. He got really jealous when he started teaching her to swim. She had no clue he was stewing while she was trying her dog flaps with this college friend next to her on the water.

When they all got back from the trip, she was informed. He was hurt. She could not understand why her desire to learn how to swim would inflict him pain.

They sat her down and explained that in a span of about two years he was carrying this torch for her. She told them she had no knowledge. They all agreed with her that she was plain dense when it comes to these matters. She was, they said, after all only focused on a single person, the one not from the group, but the group actually liked him too.

She tried to talk to him. But by then he got really nasty. A bad side of him that she had never seen before was in full display. She was put off by this ugly side of him. And she too brought out her claws ready for the battle.

By then the friendship that was developed for over 10 years had gone up in smoke. There was no way to salvage it, despite friends’ intervention. He eventually eased out of the group. She stayed put.

A year or so later, she came to her senses. She tried to write him and apologize for what she termed as her “insensitivity to his feelings”, but he was by then still consumed by his anger that no amount of reasoning would sway him. It was a friendship lost.

Authors note: I am personally saddened by the demise of this friendship as I personally know both parties. Sometimes pride and failure to communicate wreaks havoc that is irreversible.

I was listening to this song, Apologize, and heard the lyrics, “its too late to apologize“, and immediately remember this story. I will be posting the lyrics to the song, I don’t know what the song is about to be really honest. I know this post is about that line—it’s too late to apologize.

Here’s the lyrics to the song.