Timely Tuesday - Five years already

Last week was my five year anniversary residing in San Jose, CA.  It doesn't seem that long ago, but time sure fly very very fast when you are busy or having a great time.  We really did not plan on anything, in fact I actually forgot about it until we were seating at a restaurant that we have never tried.  It was tucked away in some not so popular shopping plaza that has only a couple of business open.  The rest of the place were closed or for lease.

I did a quick search for reviews online and when I saw the first comment, I decided this was a good place.  It wasn't very busy which is how we like it to be.  The menu was not very big and they had four items on the special for the day.  The first thing we noticed was their prices were a bit more than what we like but since we are already there, we just hope for the best.  I decided to get one of the special which was the Furikake Seabass while Jeff decided to try their appetizer Quail but double the portion.  The service was excellent and my dinner was amazing.  The sea bass was cooked to perfection with a nice flavor.  Jeff was not really pleased with what he ordered but it was different and it was edible.  Would we go back there,

probably not because we can play for the same price but actually get more and a little more entrees to chose from.  We didn't mind the whole experience because it was my five year anniversary of moving in with Jeff.  As you know, Jeff is such an easy going person and that day was all about me.   Check out the photos of our dinner at Elements on Almaden.

Seabass with brown rice and quinoa plus steamed veggies

Two quail split in half served with mini garden salad

 

Music Monday - Trying to keep up

Is it a real sign that you are getting old when you don't know what is the latest hits of this week, month or year?  Maybe because some of the songs are not so memorable anymore since most of them are just repeating the same words or lines over and over.  Of course, country hits are different.  They seem to still come up with great songs that have a story.  So if you were to ask me what my favorite summer song of this year is, I have no clue.  The station that I listen to when I am in my car plays the songs of the 70's and 80's.  Once in a while I would switch to my 95.3 KRTY for country's latest.  Let me see if I can even pick some songs for this year that I actually could remember. I search for the top 100 songs of 2015 and so far I only know or heard of 5.

• See you again by Charlie Puth
• Shake it off by Taylor Swift
• Uptown Funk by Bruno Mars
• Honey I'm good by Andy Grammer
• Save it for a rainy day by Kenny Chesney

The difference with all these songs is that in a year or two, I would not remember any of them.  Maybe some can remember them, but in five years, no one will remember.  If you were to compare to some of the songs that we grew up to, even the now generation likes them and are listening to these greatest all time favorites.  Lately a lot of these bands are starting to tour again and it's too bad that the tickets are so expensive because it would be such a treat to see them perform their hits live.  

 

Sincerely Saturday - August celebrants

There are so many birthday celebrants for the month of August that I am making today's post special for all my family and friends.  It's definitely the month that has the most names in our calendar.  Some of them are sharing the same date which is amazing.  It makes you wonder if there's a truth about six degrees of separation.  So I'm sending my birthday wishes to the following and hoping that their day will be filled with happiness.   

• August 6 - Mike 
• August 8 - Russ
• August 16 - Jeff, Gil and Anjay
• August 18 - Lisa
• August 25 - Tom
• August 26 - Carlos, Marie, Allister and Gino (My son's 34th birthday if)
• August 28 - Gord
• August 29 - Brock
• August 30 - Joe

There are 13 candles for everyone except for Gino.

I wonder if Gino would like the Minions too.

Fearful Friday - Inherited or Not

A few days ago my daughter mentioned that while on a routine biking around the city, she was confronted with crossing a bridge where one of the wooden plank was missing.  When I read this, I mean just reading it, my feet and my hands became sweaty/clamy.  I felt the fear.  My daughter did not like that experience.  I told her immediately that she got that fear from me.  At my age I still have so many fears that for some reason I cannot just conquer.  I thought I was getting better with some of them but I don't think I can really get rid of them.

While researching about these fears if they are inherited or not, I found some interesting info that I would like to share.  Apparently there are three types of fears: 

• Situational ( fear of closed space, flying, the dark)
• Animal ( rat, dog, snakes )
• Blood/Injury ( fear of dentist, dentist, injections and blood)

Now I will try to break down the list of my fears into these above categories and share what I have tried in the past to conquer some of them.

• Situational ( height, water, bridges, dark country roads)
• Animal ( rat, snakes, mouse, spiders and other insects)
• Blood/injury (gory scenes, weird looking alien/characters)

As I continue to read more articles, I found the following phobias that are applicable to my fears.

• Acrophobia - fear of heights
• Aquaphobia - abnormal and persistent fear of water
• Chiroptophobia - fear of bats
• Entomophobia - fear of insects
• Gephyrophobia - fear of bridges
• Herpetophobia - fear of reptiles
• Musophobia - fear of mice and/or rats
• Nyctophobia - fear of darkness

Through the years I have done some things that I can say I've faced my fears but will never do it again.  Most of my friends know most of these fears and they have helped me try to get over it. Some success but a lot are failures.

• 1993 - a very dear friend gave me a gift of Champagne Hot Air Balloon Ride
• 1998 - Drove over bridge from Ontario to USA and back. Sweating all the way
• 2002 - chair lift at the Great Wall of Mutianyu, China
• 2006 - parasailing with Jeff in Punta Cana, DR - no one saw us but I have proof
• 2007 - rode the Banff Gondola with Jeff 
• 2009 - killed a mouse using two very sticky paper from the dollar store
• 2010 - drove late at night on a country road w/o looking at my rearview mirror
• 2014 - bought an electronic bug zapper - non messy way to get rid of bugs at home

 

This was the part where they let you down easy just to get wet and pull you back up.

Believe it or not, that is me in the front and Jeff is behind with his open arms.

Do you have a lot of fears or are you one of those fearless type?  Did you inherit a fear or phobia of some sort?  Did you have some experience that resulted in your fear?  I did.   
 

Wilted Wednesday - Plants are so thirsty

This was the temperature last Wednesday.

And there is still no rain in the forecast.  It's too bad that all that rain they are getting in the east couldn't be blown towards the west.  As you know more brush fires are starting almost every week.  Last summer we had one brush fires on the hills behind our house.  If you use a telescope you could see all the fire fighters working very hard to keep it contained.  They did such a good job in a short period of time.  It's a double whammy when it comes to the conditions of the hills and the shortage of water.  The extended forecast is sunny between 75 and 85 degrees F.  The topic got side track as I started my title with wilted and plants being thirsty, unfortunately I forgot to take photos of the plants that are dried up.  I guess you can imagine what they look.  Here's what our front yard look.

The brownish leaves on the left is part of the plum tree.  Notice a couple of white flowers trying to look alive.

 

Terrific Tuesday - It's fun picking

There is so much joy in seeing all the vegetable grow but more exciting is when they are ready to be picked.  This past couple of weeks, I have been picking tomatoes almost every other day.  Although I will have to wait for the squash to be ready, it's just great to see that they are actually getting a chance to grow and not get eaten by critters.  I have been trying to take photos of different harvest so I could show them off.  Of course I have to give credit to Jeff as he is the gardener who works hard ensuring that they are watered, weeded and picked when ready.

Grape Tomatoes - looks like red grapes but taste like tomatoes

Can you find the green bell pepper?

Can you guess how many cherry tomatoes are in this container?

 

Scrumptious Sunday - Just so yummy

Every now and again I will remember to take photos of the different foods that we try when we go out for dinner or lunch.  Most of the time I forget to take one because either I am so hungry or just too busy chatting with friend.  What I am sharing today as just an assortment of photos taken within the last two weeks of meals we've tried or just my home made meals.

I hope you don't get too hungry when you see these photos but I do hope you enjoy checking them out.

Turkey and Provolone panini with mac & cheese from Panera

Pineapple and coconut ice cream with waffle cookies - Jeff serves this as dessert after dinner.

Camarones in chipotle creamy sauce from Casa Teresa restaurant (our favorite Mexican place)

Not too appetizing in photo but it was so flavorful ( pulled pork enchilada - I made for lunch)