Selective Sunday - Our last harvest

September is here.  The weather is changing.  The leaves are turning.  NFL started their pre season games.  I am sure you know already know where I am going with this.  FALL/Autumn.  Not rushing it, but we just did our last harvest in our backyard.  Actually Jeff want to get the garden ready for the winter crops.  Although there are still some tomatoes, yellow squash that are still trying to grow but not very fast, and maybe some peppers, the end of the summer is only a couple of weeks away.  Yesterday we decided to redecorate our backyard with the new table and chairs that I inherited from my neighbor who is moving.  It's bright and cheerful and it's perfect in our backyard.  

The red cherry tomatoes we great this year.  I was able to make two big batch of red sauce.

Only the tiny apple is from Jeff's tree.  The granny smith is from the neighbor of my friend.

This is the Byddi section

This is the TL section.

This is my Maria corner.

 

Friendship Friday - What an amazing surprise?

Have you ever wondered if you can find a way to reconnect with your childhood best friend?  Where would you start and what if's.  I have always followed my heart when it comes to friendship.  If you don't try or ask you will never know the answer.  So here's how it began.

After coming back from our Vegas trip, I couldn't sleep and all of a sudden a thought came to my mind.  I wonder where my childhood friend is now.  How will I find her since she could have changed her name because of marriage, etc.  I thought I would just start with a simple google and I guess I got lucky.  I found her and decided to send a snail mail to her work address.  In my envelope I enclosed some copies of photos from our Kindergarten and Grade one class pictures.  I also included my recent photo, my business card and a short note with all my information.  The days went by and I got busy with my life, my BFF's visit and my citizenship interview.  Since it has been almost a month, I figured the letter was not delivered or it was not the right person until this morning.  My cell phone rang and I just missed it.  Then my home phone rang and I immediately picked it up because my heart tells me so.  The caller was female and she asked for me then introduced herself.  I am guess you know the rest of the story.  It was truly amazing to speak to someone who you have not seen in 44 years and still sounded like you were never apart.  We hope to get together this month.

That was how my day began.  I ended up calling my two other childhood friends who lives in the bay area (Lito and Rexie).  Later today I received a text from my friends from Toronto (Brock and Margaret) and another friend from Buffalo, NY (Larry).  For dinner with we met our neighbor/friends who are moving to Paris.  We had a great time, shared a lot of stories and had some giddy fits after dinner.  We tried some Boba drinks (bubble tea) and ice cream sandwich from the new place around the corner. It was definitely a day of all kinds of friendship and it was very rewarding and exciting part of being alive.

 

Having a variety makes friendship truly exciting.  It's never boring always trying for something new.

It's important to have friendship that are pure and from the heart.  This is what makes it special.

Tennis Tuesday - US open begins without RF

The day after my BFF left, the US Open 2016 began in Flushing Meadows, NY.  It's hard to believe that Roger Federer is not participating.  Then on the women's side, Maria Sharapova is also not playing.  Even a lot of the players are saying that it's not the same without RF.

Of course there are still other favorites like RAFA, Novak, Ferrer, and more.  With almost 10 hours of recorded coverage, I can be really picky on which match I watch. This year I decided that instead of me getting annoyed watching the ones that I dislike, I am boycotting their match and skip it all together.  It's the only way to enjoy watching tennis.  Like the other night after Rafa's match, he tried to hit the ball towards the roof.  He was all smiles and gave a great interview.  After winning his match on the third round, he gave another amazing interview on the booth with the ESPN team.  He is such a nice man, very professional, humble, funny and respectful.  I don't understand why these two women that I dislike cannot learn from him.  Anyway,  I have one more week of exciting tennis and I will definitely cheer for my favorite players who do not have the attitude, excuses and very bad sportsmanship.  I am sure you all know who I am talking about.  By the way, to make it worst ESPN added in their team this guy who is the coach of the one player that I dislike, which means every time he speaks he is talking about her.  There are so many other X tennis pro that can take his place, why him.  BTW did you know that Rafa Nada now has a museum in his hometown Mallorca, Spain?  He also has a tennis academy. Maybe someday I can get a chance to tour both.

 

Summary Sunday - A week is not enough

A week went by so fast, that's what Percy and Sarah said.  I totally agreed with them.  They arrived on a Monday and left on a Sunday.  The schedule that I planned for them was followed except for a couple of changes.  We began their visit with a game of pool between Percy and I since Jeff was working from home and Sarah needed a nap.  Aside from jet lag, time zones and coming back from a 6 month backpacking adventure, she deserved that nap. In the evening after dinner, we took them to Santana Row for a leisurely walk and window shopping as well as a quick stop for special coffee.  Here's is how the rest of their trip schedule.

• Tuesday - day trip to Pacific Grove, Monterey and Carmel.
• Wednesday - Shopping at the outlet mall in Gilroy and search of the KT muscle tape.
• Thursday - Clay shooting in the morning, continued shopping in the afternoon and free concert at the San Jose Muni golf course.
• Friday - Relaxing day at home, catching up on stories, finally found 3 more KT.
• Saturday - Arts and Wine Festival in Palo Alto during the afternoon and dinner with friends in Sunnyvale while listening to live music.
• Sunday- It was time to head back to Toronto.

Lunch at a slider bar in Palo Alto wearing our free sunglasses from Capital One.

These are the most expensive backyard decor, the one beside Percy was priced at $35,000.

Favorite Friday - My favorite son

Today my son would have been celebrating his 35th birthday.  It is very hard not to wonder and think of the WHAT IF's.  Since he is not here to celebrate today and I believe technically you stop counting after he died, I am at a lost on what to post.  Can I still do the what if's?  Should I just stop and not remember him today?  Is there a better way to celebrate this day?  Can a mother ever accept why her son was taken too soon?  So let me try to just write what comes to my mind at this moment.

• Would he be married by now and would she be really good to him?
• Would he have any children, one or two? If I recall it right, he was good with kids.
• Would he have purchased the latest Iphone7, have an Apple Watch 2, and a matching iPad?
• Would he have switched to a new car?  Maybe Mitsubishi Lancer or maybe a Sporty car?
• Would he have given up his vinyl store and return to working for an investment firm?
• Would he have joined the rest of the POKE MON family? 
• Would he have stayed in the Ontario area or maybe moved to another province?
• Would he have gone on fun vacations with his buddies from Oakville?

If any of his best friends are reading this post, I am sure they can add more of these type of questions.  The sad part now is that we will never know the answer.  Does it hurt more not knowing or does it make me feel better just to be able to write what goes through my mind every year on Gino's birthday.   For the first time I was not able to write a poem because I was too busy entertaining our guests.  I feel bad but I know my son would understand because he was a great son who is respectful, thoughtful, fun, dependable, soft hearted, loving, polite, and many more. Happy Birthday Gino wherever you are.  We remember you and you'll always be my favorite son.

 

Synchronize Saturday - Everyone is a winner!

With only two more days before the closing ceremony of the Olympics, I thought of doing this post to congratulate all the winners and the participants of this year's Olympic.  We have been recording most of what coverage with can get of almost all the sports.  Trying to watch everyone of our recorded events takes a lot of time and therefore we had to pick and choose which one to breeze through and which one to truly enjoy.  The last couple of nights we have been watching the duets and group synchronize swimming.  Although I cannot swim maybe in my next life I could be one those swimmers.  I am so amazed of what they can do under water and how long they stay under with their feet doing all the work above water.  We will most likely catch the finals tonight of this great sports.  Today I just finished watching the women's golf and I so happy for Inbee Park and Lydia Ko as they are my two favorite players.  Of course I was routing for Brooke Henderson of Canada.  One last item to mention, the other sports that I would have done, that is if I was young and athletic is the 4 person rowing.  Jeff just giggles everytime I mention these events because both of them are water sports and as most of you know, I can't swim and I am still petrified with open water swimming.  Not that I will do it.   Team sports is definitely something that requires being in sync and togetherness.  Congratulations to all the participants of the 2016 Rio Olympics.

 

 

Wondering Wednesday - Friends come and go

How important are friends in your life?  Do you even need them if you have family that surrounds you? Do you replace the ones you lost due to distance or disagreements?  How quickly do you make new ones when you move to a new city, state or province or country?  Do you feel you need to reconnect with childhood friends or college friends?  How many do you need to make your life complete?  You are probably wondering where I am going with this.  Let me start with my next CPBB guest who will be arriving on Monday.  If you have been following my blog, I am sure you have read about my BFF aka Brother from another mother.  In fact I wrote about him on the section on my blog SPOTLIGHT.  This will be a great week for us to reconnect and hear all the stories of his daughter's travel.  Sarah will be joining him for this trip.  On another note, one of my golf buddy will be moving out of the city and will head towards the Delta.  They are also our couple friends who we go out for dinners, vacations, mini weekend getaways and sometimes bowling.  Last week one of our other couple friends are moving out of the country and taking a job in Paris.  They are friends of ours that lives around the block.  We meet them once a month in our neighborhood dinner get together.  They are the couple that we go for dim sum every now and then.  We have exchange dinners and attended each other parties that we have hosted. By the end of October we would have be missing our couple friends but hopefully could keep the friendship intact.  This would mean that I have to replace my 4th player for our weekly golf.  Friends are part of your life and yes they come and go but some you are lucky to have them in your life for a very long time.  It takes two to keep the spark alive.  This is my favorite.