Third Night In San Francisco

Been here since Sunday afternoon. It was raining when we arrived. Had a late lunch with life partner at Yee's Restaurant along Grant Street, one block from our hotel along Broadway. We didn't have umbrellas, just had our rain jacket. We walked out in the rain last Sunday night. First it was a drizzle then boy, it started to rain. Husband loved it and enjoyed it. I didn't. So I got caught in the rain and now am sneezing! Ha-choo!

I was totally disoriented this morning. I was confused about the day of the week; thought today was Wednesday. Ah, well- don't tell me I am not a spring chicken anymore 'coz I know I am not (ouch)! Well, I've been resting since coming here three nights ago so it's kind of good, really..

I have been lazy lately and opted to stay inside our room most of the time except for yesterday whenI needed to buy medicine due to an emergency (stomach cramps). Husband was sick. He is well now- not that well but better than the night before. Had to wait for the next morning to purchase the medicine at Walgreen's along Stockton Street. They close at 12 MN and open at 8 AM. So I was there and again it was starting to rain.

I am in hibernation at the moment. Tomorrow, I'd pull myself out of bed to explore the city; would be taking some street scenes for my photo file. At this point in time, the bed is calling me and at 1.45 A.M. (day one of the March calendar). I am dreaded to go to sleep as I might not sleep again (like the past two nights in a row). But I must, I must! So, night-night!

Convalidation on February 25, 2006 in CA

It was the end tail of the "Almond Blossom Festival" last Saturday afternoon, February 25. The weather was nice; the day was bright and sunny. It was cool for an early spring afternoon. It was the busiest time of the year in Ripon since it just celebrated its annual “Almond Blossom Festival Parade” in the morning. By mid afternoon, many people were still strolling in our neighborhood and walking by to the carnival site (5 minutes on foot from where we live). Our parish priest, Father Morres of St. Anthony of Padua in Manteca came by at home at exactly 3 P.M., driving all the way from Carmel (2 hours' drive to Ripon) to officiate our convalidation of marriage in the Catholic Church. Husband and I were previously married (legal ceremony) in Nevada in spring 2004.

On February 25, 2006, we once again said our "I do's..."

This time it is with the blessings of the Catholic Church. Our witnesses were our close friends, Corey and Ute Anderson. Rachel, their daughter, was present, too. The ceremony was short and sweet. Home cooked meal was served. Homegrown memories of fun and laughter about our life and times as kids (and adults) made our time of sharing to be quite lovely and meaningful. Father Morres left shortly after dinner while the Andersons stayed on for a little while then drove back home to San Leandro. Once our guests were gone, we cleaned our abode and prepared our needs for our one-week trip to San Francisco for the next day. The evening ended with us feeling happy about all that transpired. Just unforgettable.

Photo in round frame was taken on December 25, 2003 in Yuma, Arizona by Nancy Cook; Photo enhancement by EOJ

Almond Blossom Festival Parade 5

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PHOTOS Batch5
Almond tree with almond blossom was tranported for the parade

Montage of the parade
Clowns making their colorful appearance at the parade, amused the many

The yellow car of the clowns splits into two see photos below

Ripon Sports Club float
Ripon Chamber of Commerce float
Cub scouts in scooters (left) and mothers of twins (right)

Ripon Library

Almond Blossom Festival Parade 4

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Vehicles on parade came in a variety of sizes and types, see kids above the drive seat and the old folks' bike below; the Corvette flashy cars below- all created an atmosphere of fun...the carnival/funfair was a success but I didn't take photos there. We enjoyed the food gallore so we didn't bother to photograph the event there. Apologies!

Almond Blossom Festival Parade 3

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Parade passing by in front of our yard; husband in red shirt, enjoying the scene

Wells Fargo Bank

Marching Band and pretty girls in pink

Parade montage 3

Almond Blossom Festival Parade 2

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(Photos Batch2)

Different scenes during the parade yesterday

Mexican horse riders in their authentic costumes and sombreros

Montage of the parade on Saturday, February 25, 2006

Horses making their way into the grand entrance, walking their might, making their stacatto pattern of 2's and 4's in accented rhtyhm, as they showed off their walking skills to the admiring crowd

Look at those mane!

Almond Blossom Festival Parade 1

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(Photos Batch#1)


I woke up at around 7 AM today. When husband called me he said, "Look!" I ran towards the window and saw it. ''"Hm..." I responded and added, "They are not supposed to do that!"

What did I see? Well, there were rows of chairs already laid-out in front of our yard! I pouted and said, "but that's our place! Wahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!"

Husband counterpointed, "Yeah, but we don't own the street!"

Ok. But I didn't like it! Anyhow, it was a good thing husband's work van was parked right on 4th St. otherwise, the early birds could have gotten our place! From the Ripon newspaper issue of last week, Ripon Chamber of Commerce speculated to have some 40,000 visitors to come this year . True enough, people were swarming in town as early as 6 AM!



To insure a strategic space to watch the parade, husband placed our rocker and 4 plastic chairs under the sycamore tree. The parade started at a little past eleven in the morning. The marching band was playing and the drumming- the acoustic of this instrument reverved along our street that it echoed continuously in our house. And obviously, it was to signal they were on their way. At this point in time, husband was still out on a short social visit to our friendly neighbors nearby. After a while, he was home in time for the parade. At the parade, different sectors were represented. There were marching bands, babies on strollers (they were sooooo cute!). There were also firemen in their trucks, polo riders with their horses (they were so regal), cub scouts looking so cute (in their baseball caps and navy blue uniform with their yellow colored kerchief on their neck, they look so adorable).

Moreover, there were some ROTC kids, real estate companies agents, sherif's office folks, policemen in bikes, clowns and the Bethany Homes for the Eldery (to name a few), who joined in as participants in this year's annual parade. It lasted for over an hour. The weather was most accommodating since days before weather had been mostly cloudy and overcast. Today, the sun was up although it was a bit chilly outside. After the parade, we went to the barbeque of Mark and Julie B.

Here are some of the photos I have taken this morning. They are over 200 plus exposures that I have made but am still working on them. Nevertheless, I have some here for your visual delight. Enjoy!


St. Patrick's Catholic Church


Baby inside a cart


And a lot more...


Mommy's club


Viva La Mexico!

A TIME TO SPRING CLEAN

Just had dinner. Husband cooked...meaning he ordered food at the restaurant or fastfood. He does this once in a while when I am lazy to cook due to my bio-rhythm or because I am keen on finishing a task at home. So far, I have been busy, spring cleaning for Saturday's date. Tomorrow, we're marketing. We missed doing that today as husband was busy with his calls and paperwork (online) at home. I did some pruning of my dying plants that didn't survive the winter frost. Some potted plants I brought in to save them from the cold had to be brought out eventually. I was having a hard time breathing due to their pollen. I was very much affected by it and I sneezed a lot plus I had puffy eyes. Well, I know my poor plants would survive again as the sun has been shining through so far this early spring. For dinner, we had "subway vegetarian sandwich" tonight plus soda (we' re minimizing in taking this, except for tonight, it's an exemption- well, actually we are trying to diet- whew)! We had oatmeal and chocolate chip cookies with hot brewed coffee for dessert. Yippe!As of now, am delighted as I am finally done with my spring cleaning. What a day it has been...but worth all the hardwork. House looks sparkling clean, shining bright. Yo!

When You Are Old by William Butler Yeats

(This is one of my favorite poems of all times, let me share this with you...)

When you are old and grey and full of sleep,
And nodding by the fire, take down this book,
And slowly read, and dream of the soft look
Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep;
How many loved your moments of glad grace,
And loved your beauty with love false or true,
But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you,
And loved the sorrows of your changing face;
And bending down beside the glowing bars,
Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled
And paced upon the mountains overhead
And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

Tiring Day!

Gotta get ready for tomorrow, yikes- am done with the packing (finished at 4 AM)and now the spring cleaning to deal with later. Need to have a hot bath to relax. Tomorrow, shopping day for food supply then friends are coming by this Saturday for our convalidation and the parade. Friday, we'll check out the fun fair re: The Almond Blossom Festival. There, our schedule this week ~and then the next, w e'd be out of town and would be having fun visiting galleries in SFO and hunting for apartments, too! One week to explore the city should be a breather for me!

February 25, 2006 Schedule

Convalidation, 3 PM

Almond Blossom Festival Parade, noontime

Mark & Julie B.'s Barbeque, after the parade, noontime

CUTE CATS

Dedicated to Little Ann, she loves cats!

TIGER HOTMEAL THERMOS

We purchased three sets of this Tiger brand thermos for packing hotmeal last year. This brand keeps the food really hot for 24 hours. We use this to pack our meals when we are on a long drive and it does make the difference; makes dining on the road bearable with our home cooked meal travelling with us. Yes! We got our first thermos at the Asian Market in Modesto. After seeing how it works, we decided to get two more sets since we travel a lot. Cost is above the rate of your normal pack lunch thermos (since you are getting a top quality one here). The industrial design is addressed for Japanese use (since this is made in Japan), therefore there is a corner designated to attach chopsticks (they come in a cute container). I took them off since we use spoon and fork unless it's our Japanese dinner at home or elsewhere. Today, I packed lunch in here for husband's gastronomic delight. He loves to have something "from home" before he starts eating restaurant/hotel food when he is on a business trip. Surely, he'd eat with gusto!

ART CONNECTION

Learning from the Old Masters

These were some of the impressive artworks that my students produced when they were in the middle school. These were exhibited in international schools abroad. I taught foundation drawing, painting and sculptures from lower school to middle years. These were some of the photos I brought with me here in California when I relocated two years ago: classical painting studies of Matisse's painting and another, of Da Vinci's earlier work; both were done as "pastel paintings" by my two middle school students (8th grade) who had no flair at all for drawing or painting at the beginning but blossomed as promising artists afterwards. Students need guidance and as an educator, all I needed was to build their self trust. Others followed: lectures were given on color theory, perspective and compostion- these helped them to develop skills and acquire confidence to create various artforms. Most of my students seemed to have no evident talents at all (they didn't seem to care much) but as they processed the learning experience, they improved. To polish their skills, they did a lot of line drawing exercises (freehand drawing) in pencil then charcoal and eventually with chalk pastel. Doing art is learning how to look at your subject and being able to see what draws the details of lines and shadows of your subject/ model. Here in this art project, the kids worked on these diligently for a month. Each stage they took, they felt accomplished; sometimes they felt ambigous but positive reinforcement worked great with them. Weeks later, each moment taken became an event; as their progress were recoginized by the school community. The large scale papier mache of artists' heads- of Picasso, Kahlo, Da Vinci...were done in the early 90's by my former middle school students as group projects where two students worked on a head sculpture. I had these displayed at the school's courtyard and during the opening of the exhibit, these were a sure eye catcher! Picasso was my favorite. Look! You could easily recognize them like Frieda Kalo and Da Vinci on the right! Frieda was my student's favorite in the early 90's way earlier before the movie on her was made and enticed the world. The mural below was impressive, created as a muralmaking project of this little ones, after learning about Picasso's life and times and the story behind his famous mural, "Guernica." These were 3rd grade kids and their first inter-action painting to date! Amazing, isn't it? I miss being with kids. Perhaps, I should go back to the classroom? What do you think? Just wondering, that's all.

MONDAY BLUES

Housewife's Tale: Beating The Deadline And Weekly Ritual

Monday is my busiest day of the week; this is the time I go over doing the general housekeeping that keeps me busy all day long until evening time (just because I wanted to finish all in one day)! I also change our beddings each Monday. With my tight schedule performing this domestic concerto, now I also have to consider a portion of my time to work out, mamamia, especially on Mondays my busiest day- since we now have a BOWFLEX machine at home. And so the pressure is here to do it since there is no need to drive to the gym. Right? But boy, I wish I could cope with the demands of health and beauty, ayayay!

view from my kitchen window this foggy spring morning

How's ironing work for you? Ah, well, for me ironing is the toughest thing to deal with since I never liked doing it since way back when, hehe. We always had planchadora ("iron woman" we call her, the one who ironed my family's clothes in PI). Am lucky truly, since husband was sensitive enough to notice my tough times ironing. So one day, he ordered one for me online (surprise!). It's hi-tech, cordless Maytag iron (see photos) with a case. Wow! Since then, my ironing time is not much of a hassle as before (when the cord would get stuck in one corner of the ironing board). Ultimately, I learned to sit down, watch tv while ironing. I adjust the ironing board to the level up above my thighs so I could relax my legs while ironing. As I go on with my domesticity, I learn different tricks to make my life easier! But prior to married life, I lived in serviced apartments while posted overseas so I didn't deal with all these domesticity...now it is all different! At times, I can’t believe I can talk all about this stuff for hours like day is to night, haha, whereas before my life just revolved around my career where I was good at (***blush***). Now it's just a bit of history, tee-ha. Well, am happy and not complaining- just sharing!