San Francisco is an interesting place!

Rick and I were going to meet up with our friends Sam and Marielle for dinner in the city after work on Monday night. We were planning on meeting at 6:15ish which meant I had a lot of extra time in the city after work before meeting up with everyone. I headed over to China Town to buy some new jewelry, which I absolutely love! I then headed towards Rick's office to wait for everyone.

Sitting on the corner of Embarcadero and Market St. was a very interesting 30 minutes. I thought I must share! I had just received a free sample of Honest Tea's new juice product from the ferry building. It was a pomegranate blueberry juice which was actually very refreshing. I sat down on the corner at a little table in front of Subway. A group of black teenage boys came rolling up on their skateboards. They asked me if the juice was good and worth getting a free sample. I said yes. They were friendly boys. They then headed into Subway to order some sandwiches.

The boys came out, sat at a table close by, ate their sandwiches, and started rolling some joints and smoking them. A second later an old white man with a very long white beard and a roller bag came up to the boys and asked where the Bart station was. The boys politely pointed to the corner of the street one block away. The man continued to go on and on about how he needed to get to Richmond quickly to catch an AmTrack train that had left him behind in the city. The boys were looking at him a little strange and couldn't figure out why he was telling them this long story when he was in such a hurry.

A second later, a group of people come walking down the street shouting and cheering Honest Tea at me. One man stopped and took a picture of me sitting at my little table drinking my Honest Tea. He said he was with the company which I figured so. They paraded down the street passing out free bottles.

An older, larger, homeless, white lady on the street who had three free bottles in her hand starting yelling at a tourist man stopped with his group on the sidewalk to discuss directions. The man turned around to see who was yelling at him and what they were saying. She was demanding that he go into Subway and get her a bag for her Tea. He had a boggled look on his face. His group then hurried along on their way down the street.

With no response from the tourist she turned to me, sitting at the table in front of Subway. She yelled at me to go in and get her a bag. I said NO. She then started walking in to Subway herself saying, bleep bleep, blankety blank.... as she passed me by. As she walked out of Subway with her bag she yelled at a Chinese women at the bus stop to "Stop that Bus". STOP THAT BUS! She then hopped on the bus and drove away.

A few seconds later I saw a short, Latino, homeless man walked by with a milk crate on rollers. He was rolling around a sleeping bag and a pet cat.

For the next few minutes it seemed to be pretty normal. I saw a few people jogging with ipods, some business men and women on their way home, some groups of kids walking by, a tourist couple with a book of San Francisco in their hand, a girl with a rainbow sweater on and so forth.

Then I saw an Asian women dressed in a French maid outfit with a big black and white bow in her hair. She was walking down Market with her friend who was dressed in business clothes.

Minutes later Rick, Sam, Marielle and I were walking along the same street, out to find a restaurant that would take us without reservations. Oh how I love San Francisco!

Weekend BlogLog - Sept. 12th

Friday night Rick went kiteboarding while I took care of some stuff around the house. Rick rented me the movie Baby Mama for my birthday and bought me a box of extra buttery popcorn, so we watched the movie after kiteboarding. I wanted to see it before it was even out in the theaters, and was waiting for it to come to our local Red Box. It wasn't as good as I had hoped it would be.

Saturday morning we ran around and did some errands for the birthday celebration that evening. We spent the rest of the day cleaning, cooking and prepping for the party. Rick made some pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon for lunch. It turned out pretty good. The meat was very tender.

Rick sent out the evite for my birthday party but I was the one who actually did the work. Boys aren't the best at those kinds of things. He looses his attention span if he has to clean and cook for longer than an hour or so. He is great at making dinners and platting dishes and making them look and taste great, but when it comes to prepping and presentation for a party he isn't as good.

We made the party simple. We had a cupcake decorating contest, hula hoop contest and a moneky pinata. It was pretty fun. Diana, Becky, Derek, April, Matt, Molly, Marielle, Sam, Jentri, Shane, Jeremy, Janelle, Ryan and Angela came.





Of course all the girls did well in the hula hoop contest except for me. I was the only one in my family who didn't get the hula skills. I think Rick and I were the worst of the bunch. Marielle, Janelle, Jentri and Beciky made it to the finals and Marielle took home the gold.




As the winner of the hula contest Marielle was the first to have a chance at the monkey pinata. Our warehouse is a perfect place to have a pinata, we couldn't pass up the opportunity. To our surprise it seemed like everyone enjoyed the pinata. Jeremy even cheated with the eye patch on so he could get a good hit with the swimming noodle. Yes, that is right; we used a purple swimming noodle to hit the pinata with. It worked out great.



Derek was the judge of the cupcake contest. Marielle's cupcake won cutest or most Martha Stewart, Sam's won most Cosmic, Ryan & Angela's won Best and Janelle's won ugliest (however, I really liked hers and thought it was the most creative rather than the ugliest). It was a fun night.



Sunday afternoon we went over to Marielle and Sam's house for a potluck dinner. It was fun. There was a lot of new couples that we didn't know. We all stayed for quiet a while. We played a few games, my favorite was the yoga ball game. We put the big yoga ball in the middle of the room and we had a contest of who could sit on it the longest with out using their hands or touching the ground with their feet. Rick and I were pretty good at this one. It is funny to see what can entertain a group of adults in a room at a potluck.

My Birthday Day!

I have such a wonderful husband who made my birthday a very special day. One of the greatest things about my birthday this year was, I was able to roll over in my bed in the morning when the alarm went off and get a nice big birthday kiss from my new husband!

We headed to the gym bright and early as we do each morning. It was our swim day. After a few laps, I headed over to the smaller pool to do some exercises and stretches. I noticed Rick had left the pool early and was heading for the locker room. I headed in myself and showered up. As I was walking out, I see my cute husband standing by the door with my favorite breakfast in his hand, a hot croissant breakfast sandwich with egg, cheese and bacon from Specialties Bakery. He then took my bag and walked me to work. We ate our sandwiches and some fresh orange juice along the way. I loved it.

He walked me about three quarters of the way and then said he must go and gave me a birthday kiss good bye. I continued on and walked down the stairs to the park. I looked down on the sidewalk and saw a picture and sure enough it was of Rick and I. For about five seconds I was slightly boggled and then it clicked in my head. Another few feet I found another picture. I got to the cross walk and found another picture. I had a trail of pictures leading me all the way to my office. I then saw Rick quickly running from my office door (he was not able to get in since I am always the first one there in the morning, he was locked out).

He then called me for lunch. I got to the restaurant first and got us a table. I was waiting and waiting for him and of course he was late. He finally showed up and again had more pictures for me. We enjoyed a nice lunch together and then I headed back to my office.

As I walked in I had some beautiful flowers sitting on my desk with pictures every where I looked. There was an adorable glittery pink card with a little Mexican girl shakin her bum. On the inside of the card it said "It's your Birthday! Shake what your mama gave you! He then wrote, Everywhere I look I only see us together. Happy Birthday The luckiest man alive."




For the rest of the day I was distracted, searching for all the pictures he had left behind. I picked up my phone, there was a picture, I opened my file cabinet and not only was there a picture but some Dots as well. I checked my bag and sure enough there was a picture and some Nerds. Everywhere I looked I found candy and pictures of us from all the different adventures we have been on together.

After work we went to our stake temple night and had an enjoyable evening in the temple. I couldn't have had a better day than that. I'll take the pictures, thoughtful breakfast, flowers and card any day over the new work out clothes, shoes and other gifts I got.

My Girls

As many of you may know, I am in the Young Womens presidency in my ward here in Oakland. It is definitely different than any other young womens program I have seen. This week we had a combined activity with the young men and we all went to City Beach in Fremont. The owners wife is in our young women program with us so lucky for us it was all free!

It was a great experience for the youth. We did a ropes course which is designed as a team building activity for corporations. We learned that we have to work as a team to accomplish great things. We had to climb up a telephone pole and walk a tight rope. We had a partner up on the rope to do it with us and a team of people on the ground supporting us in case we fell. The kids did great and were very brave. Marielle and I walked the tight rope together. It was pretty scary!

Weekend BlogLog - Sept. 5th

This weekend we stayed home to get some stuff done. Rick went kiteboarding on Friday night while I got stuff done around the house. 

Saturday morning we woke up and noticed an email from a ward member who needed some help painting his house. Although we had tons of stuff to do (Saturday being our only day off and one that was spent in town) we decided to give some service. We spent three hours painting in the hot sun of the Oakland hills.

We spent the rest of the day shopping of course. I really needed some new running shoes. I have been running in my gray New Balance breast cancer walking shoes for almost five years. They were all torn up and very dirty from our Lost Coast back packing trip. I got some pink New Balance breast cancer running shoes this time which I already LOVE. I also got some new work out clothes. Rick couldn't stand seeing me at the gym looking the way I did so he bought me some new work out clothes.

Saturday night we were headed down towards College Avenue for some dinner but made a wrong turn and ended up on the bay bridge. Since we had to pay the bridge fee we decided to eat in the city. I realized how much I missed eating dinner in the city.

We went to a restaurant that was recommended to me by one of my chefs. It was called Memphis Minnie's. It is a BBQ joint on Haight Street. It took us at least 30 minutes to find a parking spot there. We were starving by the time we got to the restaurant. It was getting pretty late at this point and they were actually out of french fries which was such a disappointment to me.We ordered pulled pork, ribs, beef brisket, potato salad, mac and cheese, coleslaw and corn muffins. The meat was to die for. It was all so tender and full of flavor. Each table is stocked with 3 kinds of BBQ sauce, a North Carolina vinegar sauce, South Carolina mustard BBQ sauce and a Texas red sauce. We didn't like the BBQ sauces very much. There were okay but definitely not desirable. In fact I preferred to eat the meat plain with out the BBQ sauce.

It was a fun eating experience but I don't know if I'd go back, due to the unappealing BBQ sauce. My recommendation would be to order the delicious meat, take it home and add your own KC Masterpiece BBQ. It would be much better.

Weekend BlogLog - Aug. 28th

Bear Caches, Rattlesnakes, Tics and Posion Oak

For the Holiday weekend Rick and I decided to backpack the Lost Coast, something we have wanted to do for quite some time now. The Lost Coast is a long 30 mile stretch of land in Northern California along the coast. They call it the Lost Coast because there are no roads that lead out there. The only way to see this coast line is to backpack it. It is a rugged coast line with rocky mountainous cliffs.

The start begins at Shelter Cove which is the end of the trail on the southern side. There you hop in a shuttle which takes you to the most northern part of the trail in Mattole. The shuttle drops you off and from there you hike the 26 miles or so to the other end.

On Friday night as we were driving up to Humboldt county we stopped by the gas station in Garberville to fill up and see if they had a map of the King Range for hiking. The lady looked at Rick like he was crazy. She said "This isn't a good time of the year to be hiking around in the King Range. I wouldn't go there now." We assumed she was referring to the bears, as there were many bear alerts on the website. The website warns backpackers to be extra careful of the bears. You must have all your food and toiletries in a bear cache and then hid the bear canister away from your camp. They even suggested cooking down wind from camp and then changing your clothes after you eat so the bears don't pick up any food scents while you are sleeping. We were wrong. She wasn't referring to the bears, she was referring to the Doppers or the pot growers in the area. You may or may not know that Humboldt county is famous for its pot. She said you don't want to go wondering in the mountains and run into any pot growers. They can get pretty protective of their crops. We told her that we would be hiking the Lost Coast along the beach and she felt a little better about that. The lady who drove the shuttle for us also confirmed the danger of the pot gowers in the area. She said if we break down any where or get lost - Do Not wonder around, let someone come to us. Lucky for us, we had no run ins with the Doppers in the area!





We started our journey on Saturday morning with nice big heavy packs. The weather was great for the coast. It was hot and sunny. The wind was kinda nice, it kept us from sweating as we hiked. The first day we hiked in about 10 miles. The terrain was tough, not your usual trail. A lot of the hike was along the beach in the sand, and as you can imagine hiking in the sand with a big pack is not the easiest thing. Some sections of the beach were filled with rocky boulders which also slowed us down. Hoping from one rock to another, hoping you don't loose your balance with your pack on your back. Every now and then we got lucky and were able to walk on the real ground on a dirt trail up along the ridge. This is where we pushed along as quickly as possible to make up some of the time lost on the beach.



The first day was pretty windy (which felt nice). Rick, who studies the wind speeds and reports on a daily basis so he knows when to go kiteboarding predicted the wind speed to be about 20 miles an hour on average. However, there were several gusts of wind that were much stronger, so strong that it would throw Rick and I off balance and we would loose our footing. Rick predicts the stronger gusts to be about 40 miles per hour. All I know is that it was pretty strong. Those strong gusts of wind caused sand storms. Although I have never had Chinese acupuncture, I can only imagine that this is how it would feel!

There are a few parts of the trail that are unpassable during high tide, so we had to make sure we had a tide table with us. The first day we had a four mile stretch that was unpassable. Lucky for us we started late enough and hit the pass just as the tide was starting to go down. You wouldn't want to get stuck up against the rocky cliffs during high tide.

After about 10 miles of hiking we reached Spanish Flats where we set up camp. The first night I was extremely paranoid about bears from reading all the information on the website. I knew we couldn't set up camp on the beach because we needed to get out of the wind and into the shelter and protection of the canyon, but setting up in the canyon where the bears were scared me. We did a few things to keep the bears away - I brought my travel boggle key chain with me and attached it to the outside of my pack. This was something I did as a child, although the real big game rather than the small travel size. The key chain rattles around while hiking and makes a bunch of noise. Making noise while hiking alerts the bears that something is near - you don't want to surprise a bear. Rick on the other hand had his own strategy. He found two nice looking, smooth, light colored sticks that he held in his hands and banged then together. He was banging sticks for hours and hours. I think he got the idea from the movie Parent Trap but I am sure he wouldn't say that!

We set up camp and then headed to the river to pump some water and make dinner. We had Pasta Roni - Garlic and Herb. It was pretty good and very light to carry and easy to make. We of course changed out of our cooking clothes and into our pj's before settling in the tent. We crawled into our nice warm tent and played a game of boggle and gave each other massages.

We woke up and enjoyed the warm sun in the morning. Rick made breakfast and did the dishes. We had pancakes and bacon. The shelf stable pre-cooked Tyson bacon is the best backpacking food that I have ever come up with. It really hits the spot out there on the trail and is easy to carry. The Tyson brand is also a ChefsBest Award Winner - so even better! We laid around in the canyon tanning, trying to get rid of some of our tan lines and then we hit the trail.



Our second day on the trail was a little tougher since we had sore muscles. We hiked for about 7 or 8 miles. We enjoyed the nice weather and the beautiful scenery. We finally reached Shipmans Cove where we set up camp. We set up our tent in the middle of a drift wood pile on the beach. Rick built us a shelter from the wind out of drift wood. He enjoyed doing that but ended up with a lot of splinters. The creek was close by and very beautiful. It overlooked the beach and the waves. Again we pumped water and cooked along the creeks edge. We had boil in a bag rice and indian food with oriental noodles. It hit the spot. We then enjoyed the evening away from the wind, in the tent with a game of pass the pigs. Rick won every time.


We woke up Monday morning and tried to cook our instant oatmeal but ran out of fuel so we ended up eating granola bars and power bars until we reached the car. We left camp pretty early and started our last stretch. It was wonderful. The wind wasn't up yet and the morning sun felt good. We left early so that we would be able to make the last 4 mile stretch before high tide. This was the first time that we saw any evidence of bears in the area. We saw bear prints along the wet sand down on the beach, which means just hours before we were there, bears were wondering the beaches. I am SO glad we had no run ins with the bears. After hiking for another 7 miles or so in the early morning along the beach as the sun was rising we reached the end. Walking up the road to our car was a tough stretch. It was difficult walking on the real ground, and our (or mine) bodies were aching with pain.

Shortly after that we were in Garberville eating cheese fries, hamburgers and blackberry shakes in an American Cafe. It hit the spot. I then conked out in the car almost all the way home.

Weekend BlogLog - Aug. 22nd

We stayed in town this weekend to get some stuff done. On Friday night we headed over to Alameda Beach and Rick did some kiteboarding. He loved it. The conditions were great and he had some good runs. We then had pizza and watched a movie at home. 

Saturday we got up and ran a bunch of errands. We headed to the Oakland Swap Meet which I had been wanting to go to since we moved here. I was thinking it would be similar to the Flea Market that I grew up going to in San Jose - knock off bags, glasses and jewelery. I was looking forward to a mini Canal St. I was wrong. There wasn't much there that I wanted to buy. In fact, the only thing we bought was fresh fruit.

We also went to REI and used some of our gift cards in preparation for our upcoming trip to the Lost Coast. We also did some clothes shopping. Rick bought me a new work out outfit and we got him some new work clothes. I think it is actually cheaper for us to go out of town for the weekend rather than stay in town, shop and get things done.

Yeah, we joined the gym. I quit the Bay Club when I got married, $150 a month was just too much for a gym membership when you have other things you should be spending it on. After 6 months of not working out, I had to get back to the gym. We joined the YMCA which is a block from his office. It is cheaper for the both of us to work out there then it was for me to work out at the Bay Club. We go to the gym together each morning before work and love working out together. We swim on Tuesdays and Thursdays and work out in the gym on the other days. I am teaching Rick how to row. It seems like such an easy thing to do but if you don't do it properly you won't get that full body work out that makes every inch of your body sore!

On Sunday, we met up with some married couples in the ward at the Alameda Beach for a BBQ dinner and then had a few couples over for a game of Wackie Six.