Brenda's Blog

Friday's Favorites

2013-06-14T05:00:00.000-04:00

Its always so surprising when Friday rolls around again, the week's are going by so fast! This will be a quick one, but there are always things to be thankful for:

1. Lipstick Primer. Why did I just now discover this wonderful product? Smashbox is the brand I prefer. Keeps lipstick on until at least noon.

2. California Fruit. We've been feasting on strawberries, peaches, apricots, cherries. . . . all sweet and delicious!

3. Afternoon Hike and Marine and Mammal Center. Rebecca has Friday afternoons off in the summer so we all took last Friday afternoon off and went for a hike in the Marin Headlands. We took a few minutes to check out the rescued Sea Lions at the Marine Mammal Center. Always something interesting going on there!

4. Baby Shower for my niece having her second. Nothing like an afternoon with friends and family. Always something interesting going on.

5. A Son in Law. Its great to have another person in our family. The four of us in our nuclear family were always so close and self-contained, we traveled together and were always fine being just the four of us. I didn't know how we would do when we added another. But he is a keeper, a respectful, kind young man who loves my daughter. We can adjust ;)

Oh, and can I add one more? I discovered Candy Crush this week. SO FUN! Its like Tetris with glitter and sparkles. I can't stop playing! As a matter of fact I need to cut this short to conquer the next level.. See you soon.

Friday's Favorites

2013-06-07T05:00:00.000-04:00

Another action packed week at my house. Lots of fun and work all bunched together. Fun things like:

1. Great Haircut from my niece who just graduated from beauty school. Right now she only works 3 days a week, but I predict that within a year we'll be having to schedule a month ahead of time with her, she really does a great job!. If you are ever in Vacaville and need a haircut. . .

2. Beautiful weather, a snapshot that represents some of the beautiful scenery I see everyday as I drive around the Bay area.

3. Giants Game with great seats! I buy our tickets off of Score Big so we never know for sure where we will be sitting, this weeks game had us in fantastic seats (for the same price as we pay each time we go!). Besides great seats, we got to see Sergio Romo pitch the final inning. He is such a performer!

4. Delicious Soup. I bought a bunch of cauliflower on sale and found a recipe for Creamy Cauliflower Soup that we have been enjoying all week. (I made it sans croutons)

5. Blessed missed Connection. My husband had been taking this bus every day back and forth from jury duty. The day after he was excused, at the same time he would have been returning, his bus was shot at. Fortunately no one was hurt badly, I saw the bus and the injured people exiting as I came out of an appointment at SF General Hospital. This is a HIGHLY unusual incident on the Muni bus system, first time I've seen this happen since I've been here. The bus driver was smart and just drove everyone right to the hospital emergency room.

Have a good week everyone, here's praying that we ALL have blessed missed connections!

Friday's Favorites

2013-05-31T04:30:00.000-04:00

It will be June next time we meet, the year is almost half over. We had a wonderful Memorial Day weekend with lots of fun activities.

1. Carnaval was celebrated in our neighborhood and our church sponsored a booth with free children's games and a diaper changing area. San Francisco is not terribly child-friendly, so these services were appreciated by many. We gave out almost 500 small toys to children. SO MUCH FUN!

2. English classes and Bibles. We also gave out about 1000 invitations to our free English classes and some free Bibles. New immigrants were especially interested in the Bibles (and appreciative when we had one in their language!)

3. Lugo vs Printer. Who can resist a cat's fascination with the printer. We have to watch him though, he broke our last one . . . .

4. Appreciation. Bob volunteer's at the school around the corner and the first graders made him this card on his last day of the year to help. Few things are more rewarding than teaching a child to read! Good job Bob!

5. Wedding pictures! I finally got a copy of all of them and I'm trying to decide between these two as my favorite of Rebecca. I knew my favorite of her would be different than hers, I feel like these capture who I know her to be. She's beautiful no matter what!

(I think I like this one better)

Hope your summer is getting off to a great start!

Friday's Favorites

2013-05-17T04:00:00.000-04:00

A calmer week for me after all the fun we had last week. We celebrated Mother's Day, as did many of you.
Some of my favorites were:

1. Kittens! My daughter went out of town so we cared for these precious babies. A kitten has a way of always making you happy!

2. Mother's Day brunch and the leftovers. We had a French cook in our church kitchen on Mother's day and got to enjoy an extra delicious meal. A turkey was involved and I got to bring the bones home which made a particularly delicious broth.

3. Cottage cheese dip. One of my favorites and oh-so-easy. 2 cups cottage cheese, 1/2 cup yogurt, 1/2 cup bleu cheese, pepper, 3 cloves garlic minced. Put in all the food processor and you get a delicious, healthy dip!

4. Lunch with a friend. My friend just finished school to be a nurse practitioner and does not yet have the date for her exam, so we grabbed this little bit of free time to have lunch out. Somehow we landed at a place that was serving Pork Lasagna and it was pretty amazing!

5. Sleeping Cat. After sleeping all night Lugo cuddles on one of our laps in the morning for a few more minutes dream time. Cats really have it made. . . .

Hope your week was calm and that you are enjoying the Spring!

Friday's Favorites

2013-05-10T05:00:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we celebrated Mother's Day (early) and my daughter's birthday. A fun, action packed weekend that started off with:

1. Spa day and Cinderella. Rebecca's work rewarded her with a gift certificate to a Spa in San Francisco which she shared with me! We dressed at the Spa for the San Francisco Ballet premiere of Cinderella. Being the premiere, many women were dressed in ball gowns. It was a magical evening.

2. Mother's Day at Tomales Bay where you can buy and cook freshly harvested oysters. I prefer them raw but they are delicious on the grill as well. Eating fresh oysters on the beach. . . what could be more relaxing and delicious?!

3. A visit from my son (who I neglected to take a picture of!) and a perfect Mother's Day gift. I've been wanting one of these FOREVER! I'm already turning out delicious food from my kitchen with this baby.

4. Giants Game! After they swept the Dodgers (sorry SoCal readers), the Giants lost to Philadelphia :( But a night at the AT&T stadium is a treat no matter who wins :)

5. Kittens and Cats! Rebecca and Jon are fostering these cute babies and we got to spend some time with them as well. Keep looking for more adorable babies. . . .

Celebrating Cinco de Mayo

Soaking up the sun!

Happy Mothers Day to my readers! Enjoy the day with your families!

Friday's Favorites

2013-05-03T04:30:00.000-04:00

No pictures this week as we transitioned into May. End of the month is always a little hectic for me so we didn't go out much. Partially because we are saving our strength for an EPIC WEEKEND! Lots of fun coming up starting today.

Still plenty to be thankful for though, things like:

1. Doc Martin, we are enjoying watching these on Amazon Prime. An MD with a mild case of Asbergers giving care in rural England. Complete with a love triangle and lots of comical misunderstandings. Its just relaxing to watch.

2. Homemade Pizza. Another pastor's wife in the City spontaneously invited us to dinner for some homemade pizza. Turned out to be a relaxing evening catching up with colleagues.

3. Warm Weather. It was 80 degrees in my house yesterday! For San Francisco that is pretty amazing. Time to bath the cats and spend some time outdoors.

4. Lunch with a view. A bag lunch on a hospital roof top with amazing views of the Bay and the city brightened one of my workdays.

5. Competency. I learned a new skill at work and used it successfully this week. That is always very satisfying for me!

This weekend I am looking forward to: A Spa date with my daughter, seeing Cinderella the Ballet, raw oysters at Tamales Bay, a birthday-before-the-big-one for one of my kids. Come back next week to hear all about it :)

Friday's Favorites

2013-04-26T05:00:00.000-04:00

I love the days at this time of year when they start to get long and you know you have a wonderful summer ahead of you. I just seem to have more energy at this time of year! Energy to:

1. Cesar Chavez days in our neighborhood. Our church participated by having a craft booth for children and making "Peaceful Pinwheels" with sayings from Martin Luther King, Abraham Lincoln, Cesar Chavez and Jesus- all amazing peacemakers. A local video filmed of the event featured lots of clips from our booths.

"Peaceful Pinwheels"

2. A smart daughter, quoted above in the New York Times on Earth Day for her work on a Clorox campaign for their green brand, Green Works. So proud!

3. A shared burrito. The burritos in our neighborhood are just HUGE! Sharing is the only way to go. We share these babies often :)

4. Ridiculous earrings. I just had to buy a pair. I'd rather wear these to our Giants Games than a baseball cap. A little local pride is not a bad thing.

5. A quick fix. I have a lot of headaches and they make me sensitive to light. While I'm loving the long days and sunshine, sometimes I need to block a little out. I found these easy-install shades at Amazon (Prime) and they have done the job to block the sun when I need a little break from it. (well, it was easy for me to install because Bob did it, but he said it was easy!)

We also enjoyed a meal out with old friends at a funky Chinese place called "The 8 Immortals". The food was delicious and the service classic SF Chinese, aka, borderline rude. I don't know why we enjoy that so much. . .
Several overnight guests. Considerate people who came and went neatly and politely.

Hope you are enjoying Spring as well!

Friday's Favorites

2013-04-19T05:00:00.000-04:00

I have lots and lots to be thankful for this week. So many special moments and fun activities. There is no way it will fit in to five so I'll just give the highlights :)

1. A play, about an illegal Chinese immigrant stuck in an elevator in NYC for 82 hours. He was a bicycle deliver person and was afraid to push the emergency button because he thought the police would come and deport him. The gives the audience imagined conversations he had with himself while in the elevator.

2. Dinner with my daughter. I walked to BART to meet her and then we walked out to the little place that serves food from Senegal. Yummy, interesting flavors. We walked back to my apartment on a balmy San Francisco evening and spent the rest of the evening playing with the cats :)

3. Another play, preceded by Chinese food dinner with some good friends. The play was unexpectedly four hours long, but we enjoyed every minute!

4. A luncheon in appreciation of all the hard work we did as advice nurses during an extra busy flu season. Going the extra mile at work during the winter bought us raffle tickets which entered us into a drawing for lots of fun prizes including the ones I won above.

5. A trip to Vegas! I won the grand prize! So Bob and I will get a trip to Las Vegas sometime soon. I've never been so this will be fun for us. I'm glad Bob gets something out of this because he was inconvenienced on the days when they called to work early just as we were sitting down to dinner, or in the middle of a movie we were watching or the days I left him to fold all the laundry because they called me to work. His sacrifice is rewarded :)

Hope your week was great too.

Lugo found the bassinet we were saving for a friend :)

Friday's Favorites

2013-04-12T05:00:00.000-04:00

Sometimes I find myself writing up my favorites late Thursday night towards the end of a long work week and I'm tempted to just stop writing these posts. Then someone will come along and tell me they are still reading my posts and it kind of gives me the motivation to keep writing. . . so here I go!

1. Surprise! A birthday party for a dear friend with many long time friends on the invite list. It was so fun to share the moment with Lisa and to catch up with girl friends I don't get to see very often any more. Many of us knew each other before we had children. Life is good!

2. First Baseball game of the season and a free World Series Parade snow globe! I buy my tickets through a site where you are not told for sure where your seats will be until the tickets are delivered. This time our tickets were amazing with a great view of the game, a view of the kayakers in the bay waiting for a home run to be hit in to the water and a view of the Bay Bridge with the light show. At times I did not know where to look there was so much to see!

3. Impromptu Breakfast out. We love Wise Son's Deli but don't really want to wait in line for our food, so if we happen to walk by and there is no line, we'll stop in for a Bialy and that delicious chocolate cake you see there.

4. Jersey Boys! Yes, it was a busy week with a baseball game AND a play. I buy my tickets way ahead of time so it just ended up this way. The play was fun, the music fantastic. Glad we went!

5. Human to Cat. Its an app for the iPhone my daughter suggested but it makes Delphina wild. We tried it once and she beat up on Lugo, boxing his head, hissing and chasing him around. Poor Lugo was left like this, scared to death. It took him a few hours to calm down and start to purr again. Use with caution if you decide to try it.

And on a brighter note,

Sunset Magazine's Best of the West Big Dish Winners of 2013 features 2 places right in my neighborhood! (the burrito and the taco)

Friday's Favorites

2013-04-05T04:00:00.000-04:00

There are SO many favorites from this week I hardly know where to begin. I have a few pictures, but some of my favorite activities happened without photo documentation :)

1. Hand pulled Udon noodles. Bob and I snuck out to eat at this delicious place one day this week.

2. Easter! This is the lovely dessert table. Lunch was delicious too. My daughter planned a garden lunch but it started to rain, actually POUR, right at lunch time. So the men scurried around and brought the food up 3 flights of stairs back to her apartment. It was all delicious and nothing was soiled by the rain. We had made special tablecloths for the garden. . . maybe next year! :)

3. Museum Day. A friend came to the City and we spent the morning at the DeYoung museum mostly in the Rembrandt and Girl With The Pearl Earring exhibits. Its nice to have a friend that enjoys doing this!

4. Book Sale! Bob and I spent another lunch hour at a HUGE warehouse of used books where we walked away with 2 bag fulls of books. I kind of struggle with the idea of buying books because I can get almost anything I want for free at the library. I feel a little better about buying books when the proceeds go towards the library that I use so frequently all through the year :) (I am really good at rationalizing things!)

5. Child Art. I love it when the kids at church bring me art work. I love that this says, "love is magic", because it is! Love is such a powerful, magical thing that we should never take for granted.

I also enjoyed,

Friends who stayed the night and then took us to breakfast at Plow, where I had the Dungenesss Crab Scramble, YUM!
Lots of new people at church on Easter Sunday
Watching the cats play in boxes
A big wheels race on Easter Sunday held on the actual windiest street in San Francisco which happens to be the street my daughter and I live on. The windy section is between our homes

Big Wheels race. The first 2 heats are children, followed by endless heats of crazy adults :)

Every post needs a cat picture :)

Friday's Favorites

2013-03-29T05:00:00.000-04:00

Another week that has flown by, and with it the third month of 2013 comes to a close! Its been a good week, with some interesting activities like:

1. Birthday Celebrations. We are a small group at church so we usually get to celebrate everyone's birthday. Its a great excuse to have cake often on Sundays!

2. Mango Pudding in the shape of a fish. Some friends invited us to eat at the Hong Kong Lounge where each dish served was more interesting than the previous, topping it all off with this beauty for dessert. I tried Peking Duck for the first time and many other things that I could not identify nor name. On the car ride home we had fun discussing which was our favorite dish (mine involved lobster and garlic!)

3. Saturday lunch in my daughters garden on a beautiful day and the luxury of being able to simply walk to her home.

4. Remembering the pot on the stove. Bob and I walked out to have some lunch one day and in the middle of our delicious salads I remembered I'd left a pot simmering on the stove! We quickly packaged everything up and charged home. Our building is wooden, rebuilt after the 1906 earthquake, I'd hate to be the one responsible for burning it down again!

5. Peruvian Friends. We got together with a large Peruvian family this week and quickly remembered what we loved most about living in Peru, the wonderful people who have a great sense of humor and laugh loud!

Have a blessed Easter everyone!

Friday's Favorites

2013-03-22T04:00:00.000-03:00

I'm going to start this week with not-so-favorite. Twice this week at gas stations I've been approached by very pushy sales people selling all sorts of things for the car. I don't know if this is a trend at all gas stations or if this is just happening in the San Francisco Bay Area. I just want to go on record as saying I don't like it and it makes me feel uncomfortable and exposed while I pump my gas.

Now that I got that off my chest, I'll tell you about some of the fav's of this week:

1. Dog Walker. While working from a coffee shop in another town I saw this guy walking what appears to be a record number of dogs. I don't know how he keeps them all under control!

2. Peets Coffee. I spent a lot of time in these coffee shops this week working away from home. They are always clean and friendly. And I love the Freddo's!

3. Healthy Snacks. Bob brings me plates of vegies while I work sometimes when I feel like snacking. Delicious!

vine.co/v/bdL7q9bi2zb
— brendaparaguay (@brendaparaguay) March 22, 2013

4. Delfina on Catnip. She just rolls around it constantly. She'll stand up to take a sniff then roll on the ground some more. We had to move it outside because it was making her crazy!

5. Meetings with Co-workers. Since I work from home most of the time, I cherish the moments I get to spend with my coworkers. Its fun to get together and compare notes and catch up on each other's lives. They happen rarely, but I enjoy them! My most constant co-worker is this guy pictured above, he likes to keep an eye on my work ;)

Friday's Favorites

2013-03-15T05:00:00.000-03:00

The longer days this week were such a relief! I'm always so happy when the sun stays out longer, even if that does make it a little harder to get up in the morning. It was a fun-packed family week for us with:

1. Bob's younger sister, we had a game night with them. Lots of good laughs

2. Bob's older sister, came for the weekend. We went to a play and enjoyed just being together.

3. Daughter invited for lunch in her garden on Sunday

4. Son came in to town so we had a family dinner.

5. Niece- cut my hair

No pictures this week, not even of the cats. Lots of laughs and family time, good feelings that will stay with us forever!

Friday's Favorites

2013-03-08T05:00:00.000-03:00

Another week to be thankful for. It was quieter for me but always with plenty to be thankful for.

1. More cooking with Bob! We tried a homemade Mushroom Soup and Cauliflower Macaroni and Cheese. Both delicious!

2. Walking out to buy bread. I love my neighborhood. I love walking to the library and then the bakery to pick up delicious treats like Olive Bread to go with my homemade soup at Arizmendi Bakery

3. Movie Nights. We had a couple of free evenings at home this weekend and caught up on some movies we wanted to see. We saw Coach Carter (for some reason we had never seen that) and Moonrise Kingdom, kind of a quirky but beautiful movie.

4. Lunch with friends. They treated us to a wonderful Asian buffet at a place called Kome. I've driven by it a million times but never realized what deliciousness was waiting inside! I ate enough Sushi to last me a little while :)

5. Desk Redesign. Wrist issues lead me to buy a gel pad for typing, one thing led to another and I had Bob make me this shelf for my monitor. Its made out of door stops. Very handy (and cheap!).

6. A moth. That's right. When you have cats in the house a moth or a large fly is worth hours of entertainment. Just remove everything breakable from their path!

Concentrating hard on the location of the moth!

Friday's Favorites

2013-03-01T13:56:00.001-03:00

This week I realized that I lead a crazy life. I always have. Right now its crazy in different ways. I work two jobs (one full time), entertain regularly and help my husband with the church. Crazy. But I love it and I will keep doing this as long as I have the strength. The two years I was ill have made me appreciate being strong again and I don't want to miss a minute!

Some of the crazy things in my life I am thankful for this week are:

Lemons! They are everywhere in California right now but we get them free off my daughters tree. I freeze them in little tubs of water like this to add a pretty, tasteful zest to all that tea and water I serve when entertaining :)

Robert DeLong. He is my son's housemate and long time friend who is on his way to success in the music business. Two weeks ago he made his network television debut on Letterman, and last weekend he was at Amoeba Music in the Haight in San Francisco. Not my first choice in music, but he is an amazing performer and it was fun to see him live and catch up again with him and his girlfriend Heidi. Maybe your kids have heard his music?

Baby Shower! I co-hosted a baby shower for my friend Jonaya. At least 50 people came and we all had a wonderful time. Best of all Jonaya left with cars full of gifts that will equip her for life with baby Nehemiah.

Movie Night at the Castro. We love this old theater that has live organ music before most performances. We saw Argo and loved it! This place is so much more fun than the big commercial theaters and a nice way to spend the evening with my daughter and her husband.

Cooking with Bob. We've spontaneously created a tradition of spending a couple of hours on the weekend cooking food for the upcoming week. With my crazy schedule there is no time for cooking so this is a time and money saving way for us to spend time together and plan healthy meals.

My cute kitties always make my favorites,

Delphina in the kitchen while we cook with half an eye on our work

Friday's Favorites

2013-02-22T04:00:00.000-03:00

Another beautiful week here in San Francisco. We had one day of rain, but I didn't have to go out. Its wonderful to stay in the house all day and watch it rain!

Other good things this week:

1. 60th Birthday Party! Bob's sister is the first in the family to hit the number so we celebrated with yummy appetizers (pictured above) and a meal of homemade Mexican food - homemade carnitas, refried beans, fresh tortillas and a delicious homemade cake. Fun to be with family.

2. Help in the Kitchen. Since I've been working 2 jobs, my husband has been wonderful to get in the kitchen with me and help with the chopping, stirring and dishes. Makes entertaining a lot easier!

3. Costco Deep Dish Pizza. Its wonderful! We had it once for our Friday night movie night and then again at my daughters when we got together for an informal meal and games.

4. Amazon Prime. We quit NetFlix this year and are using Amazon Prime. In addition to movies and TV shoes, we get free shipping on many items. I'm loving just sitting down at my computer to order something and then have it arrive in the mail 2 days later. Amazing!

5. Vine, and these cats. Vine is a video app for iPhone (and probably Droid) that allows you to film 6 seconds of video. I've had SO much fun filming Delphina. I don't know of a way to post it here yet but I'm sure the day is coming. Meanwhile get it for your phone and you can follow me. My handle is brendaparaguay. Lacking the video, I leave you with a couple of pictures of my cuties.

Delphina claims every new box that enters the house!

The rare peaceful moment together

Friday's Favorites

2013-02-15T05:00:00.000-03:00

Happy belated Valentines Day! I hope you all had a good day. We didn't go out, but we'll find a time to celebrate this weekend. Thursday was just a busy day for us :)

As well as a busy week. Some of the things we enjoyed were:

1. The dog that came to visit. Very cute little guy that my daughter was dog sitting over the weekend. Delphina was quite unhappy about his presence, but you can see that Lugo did not care in the least.

2. Chinese New Year. Our church has a Vietnamese congregation and the celebrations are big at this time of year. The whole City gets in to the festivities and Asian friends absent themselves from activities to "go celebrate the New Year with my family".

3. Endless Pie. This sign made me laugh because, really, how much pie can you eat at one sitting? Although the pie is delicious at Pig & Pie, its hard to imagine eating $12 worth of pie or how awful you would feel afterwards!

4. 3 for one coffee. Peet's had a BOGO for Valentines Day, a deal we could not miss!. They made me a Matcha Green Tea Freddo instead of my Caramel Freddo and when they realized their error, made the drink I ordered and gave the Matcha Green Tea to Bob in addition to his Mocha. That was the good news. The bad news is that he is now hooked on the Matcha Green Tea Freddo's, says they taste like green tea ice cream .

5. Hide and go seek. Lugo hiding in the closet. It really upsets Delphina when he hides like that and she paces around and meows for him to come out. He looks a little surprised here at being caught :)

How was your week?

Friday's Favorites

2013-02-08T03:00:00.000-03:00

Monday was a sad day in San Francisco. Even the beautiful sun shine could not shake the grief that hung over the city after our epic SuperBowl loss. I tried to cheer myself up by purchasing some Giants tickets on line, but the sadness did not leave :(

"Victory Cake" aka, consolation prize for sticking to the game through an incredibly painful first half and a surprise black out that gave the Niners a few minutes to pull themselves together. . . almost.

To top it all off I fell ill

Influenza A. Thank goodness for Tamiflu!

Tea in assorted flavors,

(black tea is good for your cough!)

Keeping the house clean

Walgreen's App

This handy gadget lets you order your prescriptions via smart phone then tells you when they are ready so you don't have to wait around the germ-infested pharmacy longer than necessary.

Also has directions, side effects, everything you need to know about what you are taking!

Good Company

While I recuperate :)

Friday's Favorites

2013-02-01T05:00:00.000-03:00

Another great week in San Francisco as we prepare to see the 49ers win the Superbowl! I've had a lot of fun preparing for our little Superbowl party. We'll have a gold tablecloth, red plates and cups, 49ers napkins and lots of delicious food! So watch for it, and think of how happy we will all be in San Francisco when the Niners win ;)

I've also enjoyed this week:

1. Mustard Greens from a friends garden. I don't have a lot of experience with greens, but these were delicious stir fried with a little garlic!

2. Chicken Curry Burrito. And a cute little place to eat them in my daughters neighborhood. These things were HUGE, easily enough for two meals.

3. A Beautiful Movie, Beasts of the Southern Wild. So moving and real. I could watch it again right now!

4. A moving play, 4000 Miles, about a young man, his bicycle and his grandmother. We love seeing these plays live.

5. A Crab Feed in an old historical Armory in Benicia. No pictures of the crab because my hands were too messy to pick up my phone by that point. Its becoming a tradition with my daughter and her husband to go to crab feeds every year. Watching her husband eat is such a pleasure, its nice to see a young man with an appetite that enjoys his food!

And. . . . the crazy cat picture of the week goes to Delfina! Pizza thief!

(Notice the 49ers sweatshirt? Maybe after Sunday he'll let me wash it again!)

Have a good week everyone!

Friday's Favorites

2013-01-25T04:00:00.000-03:00

Another busy week, but I managed to squeeze some fun in here and there. This month is a little lighter for me on the work side, although everyone is health care is busy at this time of year with flu season. Some of my favorites this week were:

1. This hawk we saw in our neighborhood. City folk are so curious. Someone in the group of gawkers called the police to report the presence of the hawk. The motorcycle police man was highly entertained and asked if everyone was ok :) I guess we just don't know what to do when we see nature!

2. My kids together in Los Angeles. My daughter had a work event in LA and invited her brother along for the festivities. She knows me well enough to know I'd love a picture (and probably knew it would end up here!)

3. Breakfast Out at The Plow. Let me just tell you what I have there-homemade maple pork sausage, farm fresh eggs over easy, the best home fries you could ever hope to taste and lemon ricotta pancakes. AMAZING. This place usually has a 2 hour wait, but we discovered that going on a weekday at 7am there is no wait.

4. Cuties at my house :)

5. Other:

Home made pho
49ers going to the Super Bowl! (party at my house!)
Friends who drop by
Vacation plans starting to take shape

Bonus: The wedding Video! At long last I remember to post it!

Jon & Rebecca - September 29, 2012 from Rebecca Boston on Vimeo.

Friday's Favorites

2013-01-18T02:58:00.002-03:00

I connected my phone to download the pictures from this week and. . . no pictures! :( I think that means that this week was more about work than other things. Still plenty to be thankful for though. Things like,

1. Beautiful (mild) California Winters. Two work related trips to Napa this week took me through rolling hills, beautiful sunsets, birds, cows gazing on the green grass. . . relaxing just to look at.

2. In the Shadow of the Banyan. A tender, sad book I'm reading about Cambodia. I look forward to the few minutes every day that I have to read and enjoy.

3. Leftovers. They kept us eating healthy in the midst of a busy week :)

4. Husband Driving. Our car hit a coyote this week. Fortunately it was one of those days when Bob was with me and driving the car. I'm not sure my reaction would have been as steady and calm as his was. Our car is a little damaged, but it can be fixed.

5. Roku. A Christmas gift from my daughter we've enjoyed watching shows on our television through this little box. I like the quality that comes through the box. Everything is in HD and it connects to the sound system we have for the television. During the few minutes of down time we have, its nice to watch something that looks and sounds great.!

Bonus: No cats this week. The San Francisco 49ers are the bonus this week. They are one game away from the Superbowl. I'm not particularly a football fan, but you can't help but get caught up in all of it when the team in your town is winning. I've even started watching a little ESPN at the gym. . .

Friday's Favorites

2013-01-11T02:33:00.003-03:00

This week marked the first entire week back to work after the holidays and everywhere I went was pretty busy! The traffic, thankfully, was light. Seems people are staying home a little in January. We've been busy though with the following activities:

1. Improved Parking! San Francisco has challenged my parking skills and made me better at getting in to tiny spaces and parallel parking. It was hard to get in to this spot but I did it AND I was in a hurry!

2. Sutro Sam. A river otter has moved in to the ruins at the Sutro Bath's. We went to try and catch a glimpse of him and were pleased that he swam right up to where we were standing and started preening himself on a log. So adorable!

3. Dessert Date on a rainy afternoon. After we saw Sutro Sam we headed over to Clement Street to snack on Dim Sum, wander through my favorite book store, Green Apple Books (where I found a rare book I'd been searching for), and ended up with dessert in a cute little coffee shop while we watched the rain fall outdoors. Perfect.

4. Epicurious App in my phone. While I am waiting for appointments I can plan dinner and then pick up an missing ingredients. This Orzo with Ham and Goat Cheese was delicious!

5. Dreams come true. When Rebecca was little she wanted to work with Dolphins. While that is not her actual job, she gets to work with Dolphins for a week as a part of her Marketing job. Wonderful moments in life!

Bonus: Cold weather and Delphina. She is such a tiny, skinny little thing that she wants to snuggle under the covers with me while I read. Here she is keeping an eye on me:

I hope there were some joyful moments in your week as well!

Fridays's Favorites

2013-01-04T02:29:00.001-03:00

Ahhh, the holidays are over. It seems we must return to our routines. We enjoyed the holidays until midnight on January 1st :) Now its back to life as usual.

1. Little Cuties, I've been eating 5 or 6 of these a day lately. They are so delicious at this time of year and easy to have around.

2. Soup. After all the elegant holiday meals it was soothing to just make a pot of soup and enjoy it for a few days!

3. Les Miserables. We saw the movie on New Years and loved it! The singing was mediocre, but the message of the story was as moving as ever. I've seen the play a couple of times and several versions of the movie and I still enjoyed this one. I thought the transitions were seamless and the story easy to understand in this version.

4. Fitness ball. My son bought me a weighted fitness ball for Christmas and I sit on it while I work at my desk. My thighs hurt a little after sitting a while, but it takes a lot of pressure off my back as I am forced to sit up straighter.

5. My crazy cats. I picked up a new blanket basket which Lugo is convinced is his new bed. On a sunny morning while I was working at my desk, Lugo came over to supervise. He carefully removed all of the sticky notes from the edge of my computer then looked sternly at me while I typed. A flick of his tail changed everything because my computer has touch screen. Sadly, I had to send him away. . . .

Best Bites 2012

2013-01-03T03:30:00.000-03:00

I'm on a roll here. After reading this review, I decided to do a quick post of the best morsels we've sampled in (the best) our neighborhood this year. We could spend a fortune on food in our neighborhood so we try to find the best-kept little secrets that are still budget friendly Here are a few tasty bites we've sampled this year:

Churros from Dominguez. If I can think of a reason to walk by here on Sunday - and its not hard because its on my way to the library- I always pick up a Churro. I ordered over 100 for a wedding-related brunch and they were pretty amazing, even cold. $1.00 each, its cheap street food (and there is a discount for larger quantities)

Not exactly street food but a cozy little place for an delicious meal. Best Mole I've ever tasted. Really. On thick handmade tortilla's that arrive at the table about 2 minutes off the grill. The food is made right in front of you. We went one Friday and then went back 4 weeks in a row until I satisfied my need for mole. Regalito Rosticeria.

Tartine's Bakery is the best hot bread in our neighborhood. We have a rule that if we drive by Tartine's when the fresh bread is ready and there is no line, we always STOP and buy a loaf. So we've had it twice this year. Its a favorite Sunday night meal with cheese and olives. But it was delicious both times!

Secret Breakfast ice cream. I usually have a hard time getting first-timers to try this, but nothing is as delicious. We live close so its dessert for dinner guests when I don't have time to cook.

Wise Son's Deli. A new arriver on 24th street with lines so long that I only recently got to try the breakfast Semite Sandwich. Everything is homemade so I walk by and look longingly at the braids of Challah bread but rarely wait in those lines to get some for myself. Jewish food in the Mission, who would've thought?

French Fries with smoked sea salt. Amazing as it sounds and they must have figured out it's a good thing because they've nearly doubled in price since they opened. The Pie is good too :)

The best, best, best meal I've had all year was not in San Francisco. It was on Mother's Day and it was cooked by my daughter and son-in-law. . .sort of. A lot of the food was eaten raw, right from the Bay. Tomales Bay Oyster Company, oysters raw with lime and Tapatio, oysters cooked on the grill, oyster juice soaked up with fresh sourdough bread while sitting on a picnic table outdoors. Food doesn't get any better or any fresher than that!

Best Reads 2012

2013-01-01T21:51:00.000-03:00

I just can't resist. Something about January 1st makes me want to do "the best of". You can track my reading on Goodreads, but in no particular order, these are my top five books of 2012

A woman tells of her experience during a prolonged hospitalization. Its an older book but I had not read it, although I think it should be required reading in nursing school. I hope this book has made me more aware of patients needs in a hospital.

A little long, but this book made we want to go out and take a nice long train ride. I think I just about have my husband talked in to it :) If you like other cultures and are a people watcher, you'll love this book.

Another older book that I had somehow managed to miss. I found on a list of must read summer books and almost couldn't put it down after I started reading it. Haunting, unforgettable, this book leaves you with a feeling when you finish. I just can't stop thinking about it.

My only non-fiction of the year, this book took me over a month to get through and digest. Even with my nursing background the book was a little complex, yet understandable. Reading this book made me 1) Proud of San Francisco (who advocated for the rights of women with breast cancer) 2) Thankful that I had breast cancer in 2009 instead of 1999. The outcome could have been very different for me.

Ok, this one is MY FAVORITE for 2012. Beautifully written, sad, poignant and compelling. The book feels truthful is its rawness. About a slum in India. A good read for any adult.

I worked 2 jobs in 2012 so I didn't get in as much reading as other years. My New Years resolution will be to READ MORE! I fear (I say as I blog) that computers, iPads, iPhones and a television with a fantastic sound system have robbed me of my reading time. So I will put those things aside and READ MORE!

Any suggestions?