A Birthday and the Rainy Season . . . All in one Weekend

Thanx to everyone for my happy birthday wishes. I got lots of notes through Facebook, e-mails, cards and calls. Thank you.

I want to blog more about stuff that happens but time seems to get away from me. I will work on the highlights. The motorcycle is at the dealership and is being repaired. Lucky for me it will be ready this week, unlucky for me we are to have rain nearly every day this week. But, if I time it right I should be able to avoid the rain on a particular afternoon or morning with some proper planning. So, the rain. We think it might actually be the start of the rainy season. Normally the 5 day forecast shows lots of little bright balls of sun. This week it shows lots of rain. Never has there been this much anticipated rain for so many consecutive days, perhaps it is the beginning of the rainy season, perhaps it is just a week of rain. I guess we won't know until next week. I'll keep you posted.

This past week. The Girl returned from the chilly East on Wednesday night safe and sound. Hooray. The next meeting is right at the University so that is a good thing, it is this coming week. The Girl is very very busy. I went to a knitting group on Tuesday night. It was fun. There was a lot of knitting and not too much chit chat but it seems like a fun group of people. I am going to go again this week, it is a bit of a drive so I doubt I will make it every week. I am looking for a more local group, I've tried to start one but the response has not been strong. If I do find a local group, I think it won't be quite as colorful as the group in San Bruno ( a town about 20 miles north of us). But the gals (and boy) at the San Bruno group did turn me on to a great knitting website called Revalry, it is supposed to list all the area yarn shops and knitting groups.

We continue to unpack the house. I feel like I made a lot of headway this week in the living room and the office. 70% update--70% would often go out in the Small Wonder State on a harness and leash. He would mostly just go out to the main door of the condo, eat some grass, wretch and then come back in the house. Sometimes he would get brave and walk to the next building, eat some grass and wretch but that was pretty much the extent of it. Well, 70% has been very brave in Palo Alto. He walked all the way around our unit's building. He walked to the courtyard and through the garden. He has done that twice. The last time we went out he was spooked by an unattended dog that barked at us. NOT COOL. That unattended dog is frequently unattended and it isn't supposed to be that way.

Birthday Adventures. What a fun weekend we had. Friday night The Girl wanted to head out for some dinner, so we went to a nearby spot for Mexican. DEE-LISH-OUS!!! As we were driving home, The Girl remembered an ice skating rink we saw while we were visiting in the summer. Yes, an actual ice skating rink here in Northern California. We found it. I grilled the teenager who was working the front desk, he was a sport. I think the whole think was hysterical. The skaters were going around and around the rink (too small to be a hockey rink, perhaps a little three on three but no more than that) with their winter coats and scarves, I was wearing open toed shoes. Lights were up, the whole nine yards. And of course I asked if there was a Zamboni --there is!!! How fun is that?!?!?

On our way home from dinner and the ice skating rink The Girl spotted a full size nativity scene at a Lutheran Church. Let's hear it for the Lutherans!! Those of you who know me already know how this story ends . . . me in the nativity scene! FUN! And with my snazzy red jacket I matched the color scheme. I am sure you'll be able to pick me out.









Saturday we did a little sight seeing to a place called Half Moon Bay, it is about half way between us and San Francisco. I think is a famous surfing spot. We drove and man did we drive! I felt like we went over mountains, I am pretty sure we didn't but there were some crazy hills. I will have pictures of that later this week, we took pictures with the good camera, the shots so far have been from the iPhone. After our sight seeing we came home and had some yummy home made pizza followed by individual desserts from that fantastic place on University Avenue Satura Cakes http://www.saturacakes.com/ The Girl had a flourless chocolate number and I had something they were calling NY Cheesecake. Not NY Cheesecake but really quite delicious. Today we laid low but this evening we went out for dinner/dessert. I had already had a bit to eat so I got dessert and The Girl needed some real dinner. Tonight we went to Coupa Cafe a neat little Venezuelan spot http://www.coupacafe.com/ . There were noodles in a boulanase sauce for The Girl and a crazy chocolate mousse number for me (The Girl helped after her noodles) as amazing as the dessert was I failed to photograph it. Unfortunate because it was really a thing of beauty. But we did photograph the spicy hot chocolate . . . see the cup in the foam??
Pretty.

Tomorrow The Girl continues to ready for her meeting this week. I will be making some calls about nursing programs. I had a meeting this past Friday with one of the community colleges who has a program I like. It isn't looking to good to get into a program any time soon. We are broadening our options, hence the calls tomorrow.

I will work on posting some pictures this week from our adventures. Again, thanx for the calls, notes and cards!